The Dark Realm
by crestofawesome165
Summary: With both worlds secure and all enemies defeated, the Digidestined have made the shift from world-savers to student rule-takers. They had thought their destinies fulfilled... but they were wrong.
1. The Gate

**A/N:** Well now – it had been a while, hasn't it?

In recent years, as you might have guessed by my other stories' update times, I sort of completely fell off the face of the Earth for a while. Having to contend with university, job-searching, work and personal projects left me little time to write as opposed to the occasional read.

But recently the itch has returned. I wanted to write a story, job and all, just to see how far I've come since last I published a story. Constructive criticism is, therefore, more than welcome. I wish to develop and see how much further I have to go to be at a pro's level.

Now – just to be fair to you from the start – I cannot promise completion. I was unfocused before because that's what teenagers do. I'm better at pushing forward now, though obviously working five-days-a-week means that I can make promises. I do want to prove to myself that I can finish what I start, however, and I'll do my best to do just that.

…

 _ **July 27**_ _ **th**_ _ **, 2002**_

 _ **Saturday**_

 _ **Digital World**_

There was much they could've discussed, though neither would speak while the other remained silent.

This went on for quite some time and saw them quite some way down the shaft's earthen stairway, coiling down on and on into what seemed like the very bowels of the Digital Word. Their every step sounded triple in the narrow shaft, parting with their owners to make a bid for the freedom of the now-distant surface.

In a way, Izzy envied his footsteps. After such a long time descending the stairs in silence, even the mildest of his friends would have long-since turned back. It was only out of respect for his guide that his patience had lasted this long; yet Izzy was beginning to wonder whether all those debts he owed Gennai were worth the effort.

'You seem agitated,' his companion suddenly said over the clicking and clacking of their shoes on the rocky steps. 'I'm used to making these sorts of trip alone, so I apologise for the quiet. I've been thinking a lot lately, and the quiet helps me to do that.'

'It doesn't bother me at all,' Izzy lied, relieved by the end of the silence. 'I've been waiting to hear from you ever since the gate reopened. I'm just happy that I can see you at all.'

'Has the Digital World been shut off for long?'

'For three years,' said Izzy. 'Didn't you notice when I got here?'

Gennai's descent paused a moment as he turned to face Izzy, who stopped also.

'Now that you mention it, you are taller than I remember…'

'Well, I am thirteen now; it's only logical that I would have hit a growth-spurt sooner or later.'

Gennai half-opened his eyes, the pools of blue seeming to almost ripple with surprise.

'Thirteen, you say?' he blurted, as if only now seeing any difference in Izzy at all. 'You'll have to excuse me, my young friend… I've just been so busy these last few years that I lost track of the time.'

'I'm not angry about it or anything,' said Izzy. 'That said, you seem quite different yourself. You don't exactly seem like a frail old man anymore.'

The wizened old man chuckled.

'Yes, and I have you to thank for that.'

'You do?'

'Of course; if you hadn't defeated Piedmon, I'd still be growing older and weaker. Being able to travel's nice, though I have to admit that I miss my afternoon naps…'

Izzy hummed. 'Well, it isn't all bad: you should be able to provide greater support to the new kids if you can be there with them, shouldn't you?'

'You're past needing my help,' Gennai told him as they continued their spiralling march. 'I've a great many things on my mind as it is. You older children will be much better teachers for them than I could be.'

'We wouldn't have gotten very far without your help, Gennai.'

'You know the path they'll have to walk first-hand,' the old man said sagely. 'I trust that you'll all help them if they should stumble.'

Izzy worked his mouth as if to argue, but he had no words with which to do so. Though he disagreed with Gennai's assessment, he trusted him to change his mind when whatever he had on it currently was settled.

Moreover, it was difficult to argue when his legs felt as though they were being pricked at with a thousand needles. After a few more steps, he had to stop.

'Gennai, would it be okay if we took a break?' I'm not used such big stairs…'

Gennai halted and turned, his silver moustache lifting with a smile.

'Take as long as you need, my young friend. There's no need to rush.'

Izzy practically crumpled upon hearing this and parked himself down on the step behind him. It had been three years since the adventure, and what little stamina he had developed then was lost to him now. His leaving the soccer club for computer club certainly hadn't made the walk any easier for him.

Out of sheer curiosity, Izzy peered carefully over the edge of the stairs and to the sharp drop below. As he'd feared, there was still no end in sight. Due to the quirks of the Digital World, the shaft was dimly-lit despite having no light source. Even so, there was nothing to see below except darkness.

'It doesn't look very inviting, does it?'

'Not really, no.'

'That was likely the point: to put off any unwanted visitors,' Gennai opined as he sat himself down alongside Izzy. 'Only those like us who want to head all the way down will; anyone else would have turned back a long time ago.'

Izzy supposed that the theory had merit. He himself had been thinking of heading back only a few minutes earlier. The shaft certainly would have been off-putting for any of File Island's bad Digimon had they ever come across it.

Izzy had never considered the possibility that Centarumon's maze had hidden such thing. The thought that one of its many walls was false had never once crossed his mind. He had been too concerned with surviving at the time. The only reason he knew of now was due to the centaur pointing it out. Had it not been for that, he would never have realised.

'How are your young friends doing?' Gennai asked abruptly. 'They are busy destroying these Control Spires Centarumon has told me about, are they not?'

'Well, they'll be pretty busy over the next few days,' Izzy admitted while kneading his aching legs. 'They're going to stay in the Digital World until the Digimon Emperor is defeated once and for all.'

'Is that so?' Gennai muttered as he tugged on his moustache. 'It sounds as though they don't really need my help.'

'I wasn't trying to imply anything,' Izzy quickly clarified. 'They've been doing great. I just thought that you'd want to see them is all – to help them like you helped us.'

Gennai rose to his feet with his hands at his back. 'They have all the help that they'll need already. You're a finer mentor for them than I ever was for you.'

'Gennai-'

'We're actually rather close to the bottom, all things considered,' the old man stepped over the nearby shaft wall and pointed to some Digi-Code carved into its surface. 'I put this here to tell me that. We've a few more minutes to go if you feel ready for it.'

Izzy's legs still throbbed, but the news that their march wouldn't be for much longer helped him ignore it for the time being. It proved a struggle to stand, but he did so nonetheless.

'Let's go.'

It was as the old man had said in the end. After three minutes more, Izzy happened to peer over the edge and see a base to all the darkness below: solid ground. He had to wonder how far they'd down they had come… At a guess, he placed them at least two or perhaps even three kilometres below ground. The thought of it alone was incredible.

Even more incredible was that he could see in the shaft at all. It was as if it were riddled with thin cracks through which sunlight could just manage to peek through.

Stranger still was its abundance of oxygen. By the time Izzy had reached the bottom step, he was panting and heaving air which – going by the taste on his tongue – was pristine and plentiful.

The Digital World's oddities certainly did seem to shine through at the handiest at times.

Despite this, Izzy knew one thing for an absolute certainty: he wasn't looking forward to the return-trip.

'You've done well to make it this far,' Gennai congratulated without showing the slightest sign of fatigue himself. 'Unfortunately, we have a short way to go through here. The hard part's finished, but we still-'

'P-please,' Izzy wheezed, 'just a… just a minute. Please.'

'Oh… Of course. Take all the time you need.'

Izzy lacked the breath to even thank him. He doubled over with his hands on his knees, struggling for each and every breath. It had been a long time since he had felt so completely exhausted – not since last he'd played in one of Tai's weekend soccer practices, if he wasn't mistaken.

After moment, the ache in his leg began to dull a little. It would be unsteadily, but he felt confident that he could walk a little bit further.

'I'm okay now.'

Gennai nodded and led on to what looked like a small entrance hewn into the rock of the wall. Izzy followed shortly after, his forearm dashing at sweat which crawled down his face. It felt strangely hot all of a sudden. The further into the narrow passage he went, the stronger he found this heat to be. It felt more and more as if he were walking toward a foundry with every step.

On the other side of the passage, he discovered what the source of it all was. He was agape at the sight, the heat of which worked quickly to make his open mouth run dry.

'The ancient Wall of Fire,' Gennai said of it in introduction. 'Toasty, don't you think?'

Carved into the rock was a spacious cube of a room. At its centre was a narrow cleft which stretched across the floor to the walls and even across the ceiling. It wasn't easy for Izzy to see this split, however, due to the great blasting flames which erupted first up-and-down and then side-to-side.

Such a place was utterly impossible, Izzy told himself, though it didn't much matter. Impossible or not, there was no question of what he was seeing. It was right there in front of him.

'The Wall of Fire is one of the Digital World's many secrets,' said Gennai, whose wrinkles were much more pronounced in the angry glow of the flames. 'You, my young friend, are now one of the few who know of it.'

Upon hearing its name, Izzy was immediately curious.

'Is it a firewall?'

Gennai closed eyes tightened in a blink, turned to the flames and back to him again.

'I don't mean a wall made of fire,' he clarified, squinting against its light. 'I mean the kind of firewall you'd find on a computer preventing any unauthorised access.'

'Well, it certainly doesn't appear to be very inviting,' the old man remarked. 'I can't tell you how frightening it was when I found it. Do you recall when last I mentioned it?'

Izzy had to think on it a moment before the memory came to him.

'It was just before we battled Apocalymon,' he said. 'You told us about it. Apocalymon came from behind it, didn't he?'

'That he did,' said Gennai. 'As you said, this wall's purpose is to prevent access to the Digital World from what waits beyond it.'

'Does that mean that Apocalymon wasn't a Digimon?'

'He was definitely a Digimon on this side of the Wall. What he might have been on the other side of it, however, I couldn't tell you.'

Izzy lifted an arm to shield his eyes from the Wall's fury. 'But Gennai, where did you get your information about him from? You pretty much told us who and what he was like you knew him.'

'At the time, I had plenty of myths and legends to base it all on; but it was the Wall that told us that those stories were true. Had Centarumon not stumbled upon this, then we wouldn't have even had that.'

'… But why show me it now?' Izzy enquired. 'We defeated Apocalymon a long time ago. What's the point now?'

'Apocalymon is gone – that is true,' the old man sniffed. 'But the darkness he represented endures. He emerged from behind this wall – it stands to reason to think that others could follow suit.'

That was a thought that Izzy didn't relish. 'But where would they come from? And just what is there behind this wall, anyway?'

'Have a look.'

With a muffled snap of his gloved fingers, the fires were extinguished as easily as the flames that danced atop a birthday candle. In their absence, the room grew considerably cooler, much like hot steel when it is suddenly dipped into water.

'Prodigious…' Izzy blurted in absolute awe. 'H-how did you do that…?'

'A story for another time,' Gennai dismissed. 'The flames won't stay out for long. We must be quick.'

'Oh… Okay.'

'Follow me.'

They approached the small cleft in the centre of the room, which couldn't have been more than three-foot-wide. Gennai and Izzy leapt over the divide with ease, though the latter did so half-expecting the flame to resume mid-jump.

On the other side, they found the secret the Wall had been hiding.

Embedded into the back wall of the room was a very large and frightfully foreboding gate. It was made of a tyrian-purple metal and held upright by what looked to be the skeleton of a gargantuan ram-like creature. At its centre, the gate bore a heptagon shape made up of seven strange-looking symbols.

'It's like the one at Myotismon's castle,' Izzy observed, 'only this one is a little… Um…'

'Gaudy?' Gennai offered.

'I suppose that's one way of putting it, yes.'

The entire thing was gaudy, yet somehow its most innocuous-looking features managed to unsettle him far more than the skeleton.

'Are those… _crests_?'

Gennai chuckled quietly to himself. 'We think in very similar ways, you and I. That was my first thought as well.'

'But how can there be crests?' Izzy challenged him. 'I thought only us kids had crests!'

'There are as many crests as there are people to use them,' the old man told him as he took a few steps closer to the gate. 'Your crests allowed you to channel your energies and share them with your Digimon, which then allowed them to Digivolve. So long as the thing that the crest represents is passed on, then so too does their power.'

'Like the new kids and their Armour Digivolutions?'

'Precisely.'

'Then what do these crests represent?'

'By the feel of them, these crests channel powers far darker than your own. For every desire to do good, there will always be a desire to do harm. Put simply, your crests channel the good and these crests the evil.'

'We've come across something like that,' Izzy conceded reluctantly. 'When Tai made Agumon Digivolve into SkullGreymon, it definitely wasn't done out of courage…'

'Yes, such powers are dangerous,' Gennai told him as he gentle rapped his knuckles on the purple metal. 'And by the look of them, they make for powerful seals. They're keeping the door closed, so far as I can tell.'

'To keep Apocalymon from escaping?' Izzy proposed, though he dismissed the idea after two seconds of thought. 'No, that can't be right… It wouldn't still be all in one piece if that were case.'

'Which brings us to the reason that I brought you down here,' Gennai said suddenly, pointing to the arrangement of the seven crests. 'This gate is sealed, yet Apocalymon came through it regardless. If he could do it, then others like him might do the same. If the seals are growing weaker, then we could be faced by two or three of them at the same time.'

'That's not a comforting thought…'

'My thoughts exactly.'

'Okay… So, what do you want to do with it?'

'We have two choices, my friend: we can either leave it or we can bury it. Centarumon cares for the ruins above, not below. Were we to bury it, he wouldn't much mind.'

'Well, why not bury it?' Izzy scanned the gate with his eyes and saw nothing good that could come of its preservation. 'In all honesty, it seems like a pretty easy choice.'

'At first glance, yes,' said Gennai, who himself was inspecting it with half-closed eyes. 'But if we bury it, we'll never learn where it is that Apocalymon came from. If we knew that, then we might be able to nip the problem in the bud. Then again, there's no guarantee that a burial would be any good, either.

'I'm of two minds, my young friend. You've as much right to decide as I do. Say the word and I'll see whatever it is done.'

Izzy was mindful of Gennai's warning about the flames, and so considered his options carefully. Burial so far beneath ground would certainly make escape difficult for any Digimon. On the other hand, studying the gate might well reveal its secrets. In Gennai's hands, he trusted that any research carried out would turn over a stone or two. In summary, he was choosing the one which would be best in the mid-to-long-term.

With a quick tallying of the pros and cons in his head, Izzy's decision was made.

'We should bury it, if only to be safe.'

'Then bury it we will,' Gennai accepted without issue. 'I had hoped to learn its secrets, but it can't be helped. Protecting both of our worlds is more important than anything we could learn from this new one.'

With this said, the old man headed back to and leapt across the room's cleft with Izzy following shortly thereafter. Upon landing, he posed the obvious question.

'Should I let the others know?'

'They've enough to worry about,' said Gennai. 'Besides which, it will soon be completely unreachable. Why trouble them with a problem that you and I have already resolved?'

Izzy nodded, though his smile didn't survive long. As he had feared, the way up the stairs was twice as challenging as the way down. The moment his head met his pillow, his brain went into sleep-mode as easily as with the flick of a switch.

…

 _ **April 3**_ _ **rd**_ _ **, 2005**_

 _ **Sunday**_

 _ **Real World**_

Without a single cloud anywhere in the sky, Shiokaze Park was left entirely at the mercy of the sun's glare. It was high-noon in mid-Spring, and so the day was set to be the hottest of the year thus far. Park-goers hid beneath any canopy or tree they could find while passers-through frantically fanned themselves as they went. The surrounding buildings appeared to wave in the hot air; such mirages could be seen throughout Tokyo, the city seeming more and more like a concrete desert the longer that the day stretched on.

Not that the Digidestined were about to let a little heat get in the way of their yearly get-together. Having survived true deserts, such weather seemed almost mild by comparison; it had barely even registered. Even if it had, there was simply too much worth celebrating to really worry about it.

'Congratulations on your graduation, Cody,' were the first words out of Joe's mouth upon his arrival. 'I know I'm a little late in saying it, but I figured that I'd do it anyway.'

'Thank you, Joe,' the polite young boy rose from their picnic bench, taking Joe's offered hand into his own. 'I heard about your being accepted into Fukuoka University – congratulations.'

Joe smiled at the boy as they broke their handshake. After so many years of study and due diligence, his struggles had just recently paid off. Everyone he knew had been heaping praise on him as though he were the greatest thing since sliced-bread. Success wasn't something he was accustomed to, and so he was hesitant about letting it go to his head.

'Huh,' he blurted in realisation. 'I just realised that Cody's graduation means that none of us are in elementary school anymore.'

'Well, yeah,' said Mimi, who had used a Digi-Port in America to emerge in Japan. 'I don't they can hold anyone back that long, Joe.'

'I know that,' Joe said with a good-natured chuckle. 'It's just seems strange that we were all in elementary school when we first got started and that it's behind us all now.'

'Great way of putting it,' Tai said sarcastically. 'It's great that Cody's in the big leagues now, but it is a little weird. The Digiworld was a part of us as kids, and now we're pretty much grown-up.'

Sora seemed to find something he had said very amusing, for she erupted with titters.

'I'm sorry, but _you_ – grown-up?'

Her words earned her his ire.

'Right here!' he protested, slapping on the empty section of picnic bench beside him. 'I am sitting _right here_!'

'I know, I know,' she cheekily countered. 'It's kind of hard to miss that mop-top you call a head.'

Tai recoiled slightly but had nothing with which to respond. Sora's smile stretched from ear-to-ear. The opportunity to tease her oldest friend was something she'd never been able to pass up.

'Why's it always come back to the hair?' Tai grumbled. 'It's a big part of the Tai package.'

'… Did you really just say that out loud?'

'… I didn't realise how bad it sounded 'til after I said it,' he admitted with a sudden grimace, looking now to his greatest ally for support. 'C'mon, Matt, back me up!'

The blonde rocker tensed suddenly with the expression of someone who had desperately tried not to stand out and failed.

'Why should I?' he demanded in a voice sharper than a cracking whip. 'Don't drag me into this!'

'Oh, c'mon! Don't flake out on me! Remember the rule: bros before schmoes!'

Thin lines wrinkled the blonde's brow. 'Watch it.'

'Why?' Sora blinked, looking between the pair. 'What did he say?'

'Tai subtly insulted you.'

'Dude!' Tai leant back in his seat as though struck. 'Don't just rat me like that!'

'You reap what you sow, man,' Matt shrugged before resting his chin on his palm and looking elsewhere. 'Whatever.'

There were a few friendly chuckles, though not nearly enough to conceal Davis' whispers across the table to TK.

' _Dude,_ _your brother's so whipped_!'

'Hrgh…' Matt growled, fixing the boy with a chilly glare.

'Uh… I meant it in a good way.'

TK snickered as his friend squirmed. '"In a good way".'

'Y-yeah! In a totally cool, Matt-not-killin'-Davis kinda way!'

'Just shut up, you idiot,' was the elder blonde's advice, though his girlfriend appeared less than impressed with him. 'What?'

'Matt, we've talked about this,' she scolded. 'You shouldn't insult a friend like that.'

'Yeah, yeah…'

'Matt-'

'Look, I'm sorry, okay?' he said in a petulant tone. 'Can we drop it now?'

A sudden tittering drew all eyes to Mimi, who had herself adopted the same posture as Matt; unlike his chilly blue, however, her honey eyes almost seemed to gleam in the sunshine.

'Sora, Sora, Sora…' she sighed with a small shake of the head. 'If you had just told me that you were giving him obedience training, I would've come and helped.'

'W-what? No!' the redhead's face flushed at the accusation. 'It isn't – I haven't been… Matt, say something!'

'"Obedience training"… Give me a break…'

'Matt!'

'Ugh – what now?'

'Just like an old married couple,' Mimi giggled with glee. 'Any-who, I'd say that it's about time to dig in.'

'Don't have to tell me twice!'

Davis quite happily took the cue and seized the nearest available sandwich, scarfing it down in two big bites.

'Why do I even bother?' Kari breathed as she hid her face in her hand. 'The one thing I asked him not to do, and he does it anyway.'

'You must have seen it coming,' TK whispered behind both hand and rice-ball. 'Some things never change.'

'I know, but I tell him to mind his table-manners every single time; I just wish that for once he might listen.'

'Then don't,' TK said before taking a bite of his snack. 'It's not like he'll ever remember, even if you're the one telling him; I mean, this _is_ Davis we're talking about.'

'Give him a little credit,' she urged, 'He changed how he treated his sister when we asked him to, didn't he?'

'When I asked: no,' TK said with a final and dismissive bite. 'When _you_ asked: yes.'

'Aye erd dat!'

'Davis, the food!' Tai barked at him. 'Don't spit half-chewed crumbs on everything!'

'S-sowbie…'

'Don't be sorry – be careful!'

The younger boy swallowed so loudly that his idol could hear it.

'You got it, coach!'

'Huh…' TK mumbled out of interest. 'Apparently the old 'Kari Magic' is more like 'Kamiya Magic'.'

'You guys?' Cody spoke suddenly. 'If you don't hurry up then Davis will eat your share of the picnic.'

It was a valid point, and so the pair put their conversation to rest for the time being and grabbed something to eat.

Everyone had their own way of enjoying their time together: Davis and Yolei, for instance, warred over the ever-dwindling spread before them; Mimi and Tai went on teasing Matt and Sora; Ken, Cody and Izzy chatted at length about academia; and good Ol' Reliable Joe – having been last to arrive and last to be seated – did his best to keep a conversation with TK and Kari going.

Sometime into their picnic, however, their voices were all suddenly overruled by loud and synchronised beeping noises. They all moved as one to withdraw the sources, be they in their pockets or in the bags that they had brought with them.

'Huh?' Tai blinked. 'My Digivice – it's reacting to something.'

'It's not just yours,' said Joe, holding his in the palm of his hand. 'They're all reacting.'

'Historically speaking, that never means anything good,' Izzy remarked. 'Although, it has been a while since anything's set them off like this…'

Davis nodded. 'Last time was Diaboromon, right? How long ago was that?'

'How could you forget something like that?' Ken asked him as the beeping suddenly ceased. 'Oh – it stopped.'

'That can't be good.'

'Let's get packing, guys,' Tai instructed, attaching his Digivice to the back of his shorts. 'Better safe than sorry; let's go see what this is about.'

Matt hummed agreeably. 'I'm with you, Tai – let's go.'

None debated the issue and set about putting their bento boxes and other such Tupperware back in their bags. As the Takaishi apartment was the nearest, the group decided that it would be quickest to use TK's PC as their access point and so hurriedly set out to reach it.

…

'Huh,' was Davis' immediate reaction upon arrival. 'That's weird; no TV set?'

Surrounded by indistinct earth and purple-barked trees, it was quite plain to see which world they were now in. Ironically enough, however, the absence of a TV in that place proved stranger than its actual presence would have been. The computer screen and the TVs were interconnected, after all. Without one or the other, there could be no travel between the worlds.

Yet, just as Davis had noted, the other side of their Digi-Port was missing.

Tai, however, didn't want them getting side-tracked.

'Worry about it later, Davis,' he told his protégé. 'We need to make sure everyone's okay first.'

'I get that, but how'd we get here without a TV?'

'Davis,' Matt said much more pointedly, ' _later_.'

'Alright already! No need to go bitin' my head off, I just thought it was worth mentionin'…'

A reassuring hand fell upon the boy's shoulder.

'Don't take it personally, Davis,' TK said comfortingly with a smile to match. 'My brother has a problem expressing how he feels; he didn't mean anything by it.'

The brothers made eye-contact, the elder's frosty lakes clashing with the calm pools that were the younger's.

'Alright, alright,' TK coalesced, his hands lifted in mock-surrender. 'We aren't here to fight each other, remember?'

'I don't think we'll be fighting at all,' Izzy said quite suddenly, pointing toward something beyond the trees to one side of their path. 'Look – over there.'

Everyone approached the specified trees and took a peek at what lay beyond.

' _That_ ,' Davis said, 'is a whole lotta Digimon.'

It was by no means an overstatement. A large clearing in the forest lay ahead, occupied by a variety of Digimon: Andromon; Leomon; Meramon; Frigimon; Monzaemon; and Ogremon to name but a few.

'Our friends?' said Mimi, giving voice to their shared confusion. 'What are they all doing?'

A gravelly noise then filled their ears and drew their eyes to Leomon. The proud lion was drawing slowly to his fullest height, lifting a boulder-sized piece of rubble with him as he went. Such a piece was part of a collection, taken from what looked like a collapsed mountain of both debris and rock. All of their friends were lending a helping hand in this, taking from one heap and setting it to one side in another.

'Cleaning, I guess?' Joe unconfidently supplied.

'… You said they're your friends – right, Mimi?' asked Yolei.

'That's right.'

'Then why don't we just go up and ask them what they're up to?'

'That… is actually a good point,' Joe conceded.

With this settled, the Digidestined pushed their way through the shrubbery around the trees and pushed on through into the clearing. To make themselves known, they all shouted out to their nearest digital friend at the top of their lungs – but none were louder than Tai.

'HEY! OGREMON!'

'Hrn?' the green giant turned around, his wide eyes going that little bit wider upon spotting them. 'What the-? What're you kids doin' here?'

'We could ask you the same thing,' said Sora. 'What are you all doing here?'

'We're on clean-up duty. What're _you_ guys doin' here?'

'Our Digivices told us there was trouble,' Cody explained. 'We came to make sure that everything was okay.'

'And how'd you plan on doin' that, short-stuff?' the ogre's already fallen jaw looked to fall just that little bit lower. 'Where're your Digimon pals?'

'They've gone on vacation.'

'"Vacation"?!' the Digimon's gruff voice rose to an unnaturally high-pitch at the word. 'What were you guys gonna do if there was a bad Digimon? Throw twigs at it?'

'Now, now, Ogremon,' came a third voice. 'That's no way to greet an old friend.'

Far younger than the iteration they were most accustomed to, it took some of the Digidestined a second to recognise the young man approaching them as Gennai.

'What are you kids doing here?'

'Our Digivices told us there was trouble,' Izzy explained simply. 'I mean, it definitely looks as though there was-'

'Not of the sort you're thinking of,' Gennai assured them, regarding the heap of rubble with a calm gaze. 'File Island has simply had a small earthquake is all.'

'This is File Island?'

'That would explain why these guys are here,' Sora remarked.

'Has anyone been hurt?' Kari enquired, her worry etching wrinkles into her lovely face. 'You're not digging any Digimon out of there, are you?'

'No one has been hurt – you can trust me on that,' said Gennai. 'However, Centarumon is rather upset.'

'Why is that?' asked Ken. 'Did something happen to this Centarumon?'

'You see that big ol' pile o' rubble, don'tcha?' Ogremon furthered his point by again jabbing a thumb in the direction of the wreckage. 'It was the ol' pony's temple 'til recently.'

'Thank you for that, Ogremon,' Gennai said peaceably, his eyes straying somwhat. 'Ah… Would you mind giving Elecmon a hand? It looks as though he might need it.'

'Huh? That scrawny rat? Leave it to me.'

With great thumping footsteps, Ogremon hurried on over to lend the small mammal Digimon a hand. The digital agent watched him go with a weary sigh and wearier whispers.

' _As_ _tactless as ever..._ '

'Gennai, where's Centarumon?' Mimi pressed, closing the distance between them and tugging at his sleeve. 'Tell me that he's okay.'

'Hm? Oh, yes – he's perfectly fine,' Gennai said with a smile. 'He was foraging at the time. In fact, he just took off for a stroll not that long ago.'

Relief flooded through the girl's veins, her tiny frame deflating of its worry.

'Oh, thank goodness… Would it be alright if I went to see him?'

'Of course,' the agent encouraged. 'A smile like yours might be just the thing he needs right now. Do you see those trees?' he asked, pointing out a particular grouping to them. 'He went that way; you can still catch up to him if you hurry.'

'Then that's what we'll do!' Mimi determinedly declared. 'Come on, you guys! We have a man-horse to find!'

'I think the word you're looking for is 'centaur', Mimi.'

Izzy had meant it as a friendly correction, though it ultimately fell on deaf ears as Mimi – beaming as brightly as the sun – spun on her heel and started toward the trees. Everyone hurried on after her, feeling in a way like a royal retinue trailing after a spirited princess.

They wouldn't get it very far, however.

Without warning, the ground at their feet began to roil like a sea at the heart of a storm. Most fell to their knees with the abrupt tremors, with those lucky few able to catch themselves mid-step hither and thither until they, too, lost their balance and fell.

'W-W-WHAT'S GOING O-ON?!' Tai yelled, his voice trembling with the earth.

Without thought, Matt's hand reached for and seized Sora's own. 'EARTHQUAKE! HANG IN THERE, YOU GUYS!'

The tremors grew more and more violent until at last they cracked the earth around them. They were thin cracks at first, like streaks of lightning crawling across the ground, but they grew wider and deeper as one second gave way to the next.

After a moment or so of this, the most peculiar thing imaginable happened: the earth not feet away from them had actually begun to _swell_. The lump grew and grew until, incredibly – unbelievably, even – it burst.

As dirt and detritus rained down, the Digidestined and Digimon all went low to the ground, shielding their eyes and – in some cases – those beside them. Only when the last of the earthen flecks had fallen did they dare to look up once more to where the ground had all-but erupted in front of them.

'Is… Is it over?' TK dared to ask, his hands never once loosening their grip of Kari's shoulders.

It was not from his friends, however, but from the newly-formed pit that his answer would emerge in the shape of a giant's arm; it thrust first toward the heavens and then crashed back down, claws rooting themselves deeply into the surrounding soil.

Davis gasped so hard that it felt as though his heart had lodged itself in his throat.

'W-WHAT IS THAT THING?!'

'CHILDREN!' despite the commotion within the hole, Gennai's voice managed to reach them. 'YOU MUST COME BACK – QUICKLY!'

Unfortunately, his warning reached them just a moment too slow. The ground was gouged as the claw drew back, heaving the enormity of its body up to the surface.

It was a truly monstrous creature with a shell darker than and an air about it colder than a moonless night. It had no eyes to speak of, yet the direction of its misshapen, almost tusk-like pincers made it all too clear that the titanic insect could 'see' them all quite clearly.

Tai's mouth fell open. 'Is that _Kuwagamon_?!'

To his eyes, the creature was definitely a Kuwagamon of some description – on that the Digidestined could all agree, having met its other family members. Be it the insect's mammal-like mouth or the innate ability of its kind to shake them right down to their very cores, there was only one family it could have belonged to.

Its teeth parted and freed a horrid roar, like that of a dinosaur but with the rhythm one would expect of a cicada's song. Hearing it shattered the spell, prompting the children to scramble to their feet and put a wider berth between them and the monster.

It was as they were retreating that their friends came back into focus, racing to and bracing in front of them in an arrowhead formation. Even Gennai had rushed on over to help make up the defensive rank.

'Children!' he urged, eyes never once straying from the creature. 'You must find the portal you used and return to your world for the time being!'

'No arguments!' Leomon commanded as he withdrew his gladius from the scabbard fixed to his belt. 'It isn't safe for you here, so go!'

The creature released a second roar, the pitch of which seemed to almost ripple throughout the air.

This one proved far shorter than the first, however, as the giant gave an odd squeak before its roar stopped, not unlike a car when it grinds to an abrupt halt. It turned ever-so-slightly, but it was more than enough to reveal to all what had been hiding behind the insect and its hulking form.

Having never seen anything like it, not even in a horror movie, Davis felt a bead of sweat trail down the side of his face, eyes open wide.

'What is – _that_?'

'I don't know,' Matt answered, his eyes narrowed and his brows twitching nervously. 'Knowing our luck, it can't be anything good.'

This Digimon was miniscule in comparison to its insect friend, no bigger than the average human adult. Its height was somewhat boosted, however, by the pair of long golden stingers it had for arms and used for its legs. Cloaked in purple and clad in a golden mask, there was little way to distinguish what exactly it was. It looked very much like an oversized marionette, though this one came without any accompanying strings whatsoever.

'That thing's a Digimon?' TK blurted out of sheet disbelief.

Gennai shook his head without turning. 'No – something's… something's different about that one…'

'Digimon or not,' Joe cut in, 'that Kuwagamon doesn't exactly seem to mind that it's there.'

'It must be a friend,' Cody presumed, his palms slick with sweat. 'I don't like the looks of this…'

It was a sentiment shared by all, the File Island Digimon among them all anxiously bracing as if the pair were a strong gust on its way to sweep them aside.

But, despite their worries, the pair seemed utterly disinterested in them, each casting what counted for a gaze to the sky.

At that moment – without the slightest bit of warning – the marionette creature dipped down on its stinger arms and, with enough force to whip up a cloud of dust, leapt up into the heavens without returning.

'Hey!' Ogremon bellowed as the creature continued to rise higher and higher into the heavens. 'Where's he think he's goin'?'

A strange squelching sort of noise denied any attempt to answer the ogre: the wing-cases of the Kuwagamon creature had parted to reveal a set of four veiny wings. Gargantuan in size, the rapid beating of creature's wings kicked up not a cloud but a veritable storm of dust and dirt as it, too, lifted off into the sky.

'They're gone,' Tai said through gritted teeth, his eyes immediately training first upon his sister and then upon their friends. 'Is everyone okay?'

'We're still here,' said Matt, dusting Sora's shoulders clean of dirt before casting a foul-tempered glare toward the heavens. 'Those guys seemed to take off in a hurry.'

'Well, they were outnumbered,' Joe offered without confidence.

Izzy had to disagree. 'I'm not sure that that's it. If anything, I would assume that they simply decided not to bother with us.'

'I think Izzy's right, you guys,' Yolei countenanced. 'Lucky thing, too; we'd have been toast if it had attacked us without our partners here.'

'Hey!' Ogremon protested. 'I'm right here, y'know!'

Davis shrugged half-heartedly. 'No offence, but that's probably why she said it.'

'That's not very nice!'

'Ogremon, now isn't the time for this,' said Leomon as he replaced his gladius into its scabbard. 'We've two suspicious Digimon on the loose; you can worry about your pride later.'

'That is a good question,' Cody agreed, eyeing the pit from which they'd come with interest. 'Where did those two come from?'

'I've an idea,' said Gennai, whose eyes appeared oddly glassy in light of all that had just happened to them. 'Come with me.'

…

 **A/N:** And there you have it: the first chapter is complete after its fifth – yes, _fifth_ – revision and proof-reading. First it was 7100, then 4800 and finally 6989.

Very tiring experience, honestly. I feel as though I might legitimately hibernate for a little while.

I'm just going to take a day to myself just to recover. Too bad I already watched the final Digimon Tri. movie this morning before posting.

Whoops.

I've already got four other unedited chapters done, so the second shouldn't be too far off into the future.

May I just say that – even if I do in the end fail to finish this story – I've had a lot of fun doing this again. Hope you guys familiar with my older stuff feel the same way.

Later!


	2. The Waiting Game

**A/N:** Still there? Neat.

I'd planned on having this all done and dusted and posted on Monday, though work did its best to get in the way of that. If the chapter seems to be of lower quality, then I apologise for that. Luckily, I have a break coming up and thus more time to put into the next few chapters.

…

 _ **April 3**_ _ **rd**_ _ **, 2005**_

 _ **Sunday**_

 _ **Digital World**_

Gennai squatted down beside the pit's edge, his gaze drawn into its irresistible dark depths as though it were some sort of dormant black hole. It had been many years since anything had so piqued his interest that all else seemed to fade away. Joe might as well have been on a different planet, for his warnings about the earth giving way and swallowing Gennai whole couldn't have fallen on the deafer ears.

'What's he up to?' asked Matt, growing impatient with the man's silence. 'No matter how long he stares at it, it's still just a hole.'

'There's probably more to it than that,' said Sora in turn, herself very confused. 'Monsters popping out of the ground isn't exactly what I'd class as 'normal'.'

It wasn't only the Digidestined who were waiting for him to speak. Their digital friends had crowded round the pit at as safe a distance as possible, fearing that it most certainly would collapse were they to get too close. The children, too, were themselves keeping to a distance.

After a long moment of quiet, Gennai rose again to his feet, whatever thoughts had been swirling around in his head seemingly collected.

'Mind telling us what's going on?' Tai asked bluntly, feeling that they had little time for politeness. 'Where did those two come from?'

'And while we're at it,' Yolei chipped in, 'just who are those weirdos, anyway?'

'Well, I could tell you,' said Gennai, 'though it would probably be much easier to simply show you.'

Matt's expression twisted into something both piercing and sceptical.

'"Show us" what?'

'Come and see.'

It was with these words that Gennai turned with a flourish, his hand stretching out and cutting through the air in a wide sweeping motion. Both he and his hand halted before the pit, whereupon the most miraculous thing happened: the hole erupted with a brilliant glow, dancing within its confines like a shimmer atop unseen waters.

There were gasps from both the Digimon and humans, alarmed by the strange mirage their mutual friend had somehow summoned forth.

'What is _that_?' TK asked as the first to compose himself.

Gennai cast a glance back over his shoulder to them. 'I believe that in your world such things are known as 'short-cuts'.'

Izzy stared at the sheet of living light, his eyes becoming wide as his mind concocted a quick summation of the scene.

'I see – so that must mean that this is a portal.'

'That would be the long and short of it, yes.'

'You mean you've been able to do that the entire time?' Tai demanded, his pitch heightened by both shock and anger. 'We lived on a _whale's back_ for _five days_ , and you could've-?'

'Not then – I couldn't.'

'Huh?'

'What's that supposed to mean?' Mimi demanded, herself agitated. 'Do you even know how _not_ _fun_ it is to live on a whale?

'What I mean is that I would have done it if I could,' said Gennai quite coolly. 'You honestly believe that I would have wasted everyone's time unless I had a good reason?'

'And what was that?' asked Ogremon, involving himself simply for the sake of it.

'Because the Sovereigns were still imprisoned at the time,' he answered simply. 'My powers are closely-connected to theirs. Their being sealed away meant that a part of me was taken with them. Why else do you think that I regained this body when Azulongmon was freed?'

Hearing this, Kari began to tap a thoughtful finger against her chin.

'Now that he mentions it, it was around that time when we met Azulongmon that he reappeared.'

'As interesting as this all is, we've a problem we need to see to,' Leomon interrupted, his muzzle wrinkled with clear impatience. 'What is it you plan on finding down there?'

'It is the gate you seek, is it not?'

From the nearby treeline, a large centaur trotted out from underneath the shade and into the clearing that was once his home. His helm hid any emotion his face might have had to show, yet it was clear to all by the sluggishness of his gait that something wasn't right.

Not that Mimi seemed to take any notice.

'Centarumon!' she exclaimed quite excitedly, racing across to meet him mid-way. 'Oh, you poor thing – are you okay?'

'Yes, I'm quite alright,' the centaur assured her as he did his best to match her pace. 'I saw some of what happened; I think you would agree that now is not the time to grieve.'

'You shouldn't bottle it all up inside,' Mimi urged him gently. 'It isn't good for you – just remember that.'

The girl and centaur re-grouped with the gathered ensemble, the latter of whom seemed to be curiously calm being in the presence of such a strange phenomenon.

'It seems that burying it wasn't the solution that we'd hoped it would be,' he said, fixing his red eye upon Gennai. 'What should we do now?'

'I will head underground to see what can be done,' said Gennai. 'We must spread word of those two as far and wide as we can. I trust that you will see to that.'

'Leave it to me.'

'Now hold on a minute!' Mimi cut in hotly. 'Centarumon doesn't need any of this right now!'

'You needn't concern yourself with me,' the centaur told her. 'We've more important things to be seeing to.'

'I am sorry about this, my old friend,' Gennai said sincerely.

Centarumon nodded in receipt of these words, saying nothing more about it.

'Now then,' Gennai went on, 'you Digidestined will come with me, while our Digimon friends will stay here with Centarumon.'

'Where're we going?' asked Davis.

In response, Gennai skipped over the edge of the pit and down into the shimmer he had created. Ripples carried across the light's surface, almost as if it truly were dancing atop some unseen and wayward pool; unlike with a pool, however, there was absolutely no sign of Gennai to be seen within it. He had vanished, seemingly without a trace.

Before their collective shock could turn to worry, however, Gennai's head emerged from within the thin screen of light.

'You see?' he wore a smile with a radiance to rival that which surrounded him. 'It's perfectly safe – come.'

Before any argument could be had, he dipped back down and disappeared beneath the surface. No one was in a particular hurry to follow him, though ultimately it was Tai who summoned all that which he represented and stepped forward. He squatted down beside the light and – in a same manner in which one might leap over a railing or a fence – threw himself legs-first into the light.

Given heart by their leader, the Digidestined began to follow his lead one-after-another. Being the most mistrustful of things he couldn't quite explain, Davis was one of the last to jump in.

When he did, however, he did so in a way he would come to regret: he cannon-balled. He passed through in an instant and found only a diagonal track of earth to greet him and carry him down as though it were a slide.

'Uuuooooohhhh…' immediate pain and regret wracked his entire being as he slowed to a stop. 'Ugh… Little help…?'

A pair of hands grasped his own and helped him to rise back to his feet. Though eyes that were misty with tears, Davis saw and thanked Tai for his assistance.

In the next instant, a girl's screams fill his ears and, from behind, his legs were kicked out from underneath him.

'Argh!' the girl cried. 'Davis! Get offa me!'

'Watch where your goin', Yolei!'

'Don't try and pin this on – MOVE!'

With a mighty shove, Davis was pushed to one side and Yolei rolled the other, clearing the way down for Ken as he, too, came sliding down. He himself was far quicker to stand up and aside, giving the trail the Digidestined had left in the dirt a wide-berth as the last of them – Cody – made his own way down.

'Okay…' Davis managed through gritted teeth, pain rippling throughout his back. 'So where are we anyw… _Dude_ …'

His sense of awe was one shared with the rest of the group. They found themselves deep within a tunnel, having skid and slid down the tail-end of the pit as it began to flatten out. It was a strange place to be certain, not least because they could see rather well; it was illuminated well beyond that which could be attributed to the portal alone. It was as if the tunnel was lined with blazing braziers they could neither see nor feel.

What was truly breath-taking about it, however, was what this unnatural brightness allowed them to see. The tunnel did not stretch on very much farther from where they stood before coming to a sudden halt.

There, embedded within the earth, stood a large and almost offensively ugly metal gate.

'As I thought,' Gennai muttered, standing a few feet closer to it than the rest of them. 'It _was_ to blame.'

'You mean those two came from in there?' Tai surmised, his mood instantly souring. 'Wait: you knew about this thing and never told us?'

'Actually, Tai…' Izzy said, his mind racing for the best way to both explain himself and not agitate his friend further. 'Gennai showed me this place a while ago – back around the time when Davis and the others were only just getting themselves started.'

'So now you've been keeping secrets from us.'

'It wasn't like that, Matt,' Izzy defended himself vehemently. 'Look, just… Just hear me out, okay?'

'This had better be good,' Matt told him in very up-front terms.

'Matt-!'

'No, Sora,' he snapped back. 'We shouldn't be hearing this just because something went wrong. We're supposed to trust each other – that's what a team is supposed to do.'

'Allow me to explain and you'll understand!'

' _Enough_ ,' came a stern voice which seemed to almost bounce about the tunnel. 'I brought him here, and I told him not to tell you. You were too busy dealing with the Control Spires to worry about this gate. We thought that we could just bury it and be done with it. If there's anyone at fault, it's me.'

'Hey,' called Davis, cutting their brewing argument short. 'What're those things on the gate?'

'Seals,' said Gennai calmly, glancing back in their direction. 'Six of them, by my count.'

Stirred by these words, Izzy turned his attention now to the crests which marked the gate. He counted twice just to be certain, only to find that Gennai was right: they numbered six.

'Where's the seventh crest?' he asked curiously, ignoring the baffled mumbles his friends made at the word. 'Why are there only six now?'

'A good question,' Gennai conceded with a piercing gaze, as if he were trying to see past the seals and beyond the gate itself. 'One which might just explain how our new 'friends' have appeared.'

'Well, that gives us just about nothing to work with,' said Yolei. 'How are we supposed to deal with this if we don't even know what it's for?'

'Perhaps that's a question we can put to those two Digimon,' Ken suggested. 'If one of them can speak, then maybe we can get them to explain where it is they came from.'

'That sounds dangerous,' said Cody, bringing a hand to his chin. 'Although, it's difficult to see what other options we have…'

'Sounds good to me,' Davis said in full-support. 'Knockin' heads together is what we're good at, anyway!'

'I suppose there's little other choice for the time being,' said Gennai, turning around to face them. 'I'll do all I can to locate them and gather your Digimon. I'll also need to monitor this place, just to make sure that nothing else decides to pay us a visit.'

'Sounds like a plan,' said Tai. 'So, how long will it be 'til we know?'

'It could be days,' Gennai told him. 'Given how much I'll be doing all at once, I'm afraid that it's the best I can manage.'

'Seriously?'

'I'm afraid so.'

'… It'll have do.'

'Yes, it will,' said Gennai, opening a new portal beside him with an almost lazy flick of the wrist. 'This will take you back to the surface. For the time being, head home and await my signal.'

'But what about Centarumon?' Mimi protested.

'I'm afraid that it will have to wait – this has to take top priority.'

'He's right, Mimi,' Tai seconded, albeit with reluctance. 'Centarumon's doing his part – it's only fair that we do ours.'

'… I suppose so,' she finally conceded, her cheek puffing with an exaggerated pout. 'But, just so we're clear, I'm not happy about this.'

'That makes two of us,' Matt remarked with a sigh, his blue eyes fixing upon Izzy. 'But, for now, it'll have to wait.'

'I guess there's nothin' else to do but go home and wait,' Davis summarised with a suspicious glance toward Gennai's portal. Seeing the shimmer was enough to make whispers tumble thoughtlessly from his lips: ' _… Man, I hate these things…_ '

'Suck it up, Davis,' Tai instructed his protégé. 'That's our ticket home for the day.'

'If you say so, coach… Still not lookin' forward to it, though.'

'Works for me,' Tai shrugged, ushering them all toward the shimmer, through which they would disappear one-after-another. Before he stepped through himself, however, he paused. 'You're gonna tell us, aren't you?' he asked rather firmly. 'No more secrets on this one – right?'

Unsurprised by the boy's brazen and not-so-very subtle demands, Gennai's head dipped in a nod. Seemingly satisfied with this, Tai's gaze softened and – with one large step forward – was lost within the light of the portal, leaving Gennai alone to dwell upon what was perhaps his biggest - if not his most literally - unearthed secret.

…

 _ **April 8**_ _ **th**_ _ **, 2005**_

 _ **Friday**_

 _ **Minato Municipal High School**_

The jingle of the afternoon bell came as a welcome relief to Tai.

After what had seemed an eternity of waiting for it, the school week had finally finished. His arms lifted high with his spirits as he gave them a good stretch. After near-three hours of sitting still, he could almost hear his bones make a groaning noise as though waking from a long sleep.

He wasted little time in stuffing his textbooks and pencils back into his bag. His legs were half-asleep themselves, and so he stood on his tiptoes in an improvised stretch. Such sluggishness had been affecting him all week; due of the recruitment drive of the first week, no clubs at his school were to conduct any activities until the following Monday. Tai had grit his teeth and waited patiently, and now had only the weekend to see through before the soccer club started up again.

This still left him with a big problem, however: what on Earth was he supposed to do until then?

'Two more days…' he mumbled to himself, sling his bag over his shoulder. 'Almost there… Just gotta stick it out for two more days…'

'Are you talking to yourself?'

The question was Sora's, whose desk was to his immediate left.

'It's nothing – just counting the days 'til we're back on the pitch,' he explained, stuffing his hands into his pockets. 'Aren't you doing the same for tennis?'

'There's a tournament the team's hoping to qualify for this year,' she replied whilst busily packing her own things away. 'It'll include all of the high schools in Tokyo, so the competition looks like it'll be pretty tough.'

'That does sound tough,' said Tai as he wracked his brains. 'Huh… Just how many high schools are there in Tokyo?'

'The last I heard, around thirty-nine had already signed up.'

' _Thirty-nine_?!'

'Why are you so surprised?' Sora asked as she shouldered her school bag. 'We _live_ in Tokyo – you should already know how big a place it is.'

'I know that; I was just wondering how you'd do such a big tournament when we've only got a year left.'

'From what our coach said, it'll take us up to the week before graduation,' Sora said before quickly adding, 'assuming we even get that far.'

'That's cool,' Tai stared at the ceiling and pictured how the ceremony might unfold in his head. 'It'd definitely see us out on a high-note if you won.'

'It would, but it's not really about the winning or losing for me,' a contended smile stretched her lips. 'So long as the team does their best, then that'll be a high-note enough for me.'

'I-I guess that's one way of looking at it.'

'Well, we only have a year left,' said Sora, who suddenly seemed to find the linoleum floor of the classroom interesting. 'I'm… Well, I guess I'm just more interested in playing than competing now.'

'Careful,' Tai managed to crack a thin smile, 'you're starting to sound like an old lady already.'

'It's better than sounding like a five-year-old for the rest of my life.'

'… Dude; uncalled for.'

'I can't even tell if you're serious or not,' Sora softly tittered as they made their way out of the classroom. 'What about you? Is the soccer squad looking to get a big win this year?'

'I've not really thought about it,' Tai admitted as he rubbed the back of his neck. 'I've kinda had a lot on my mind lately…'

'Oh, I noticed,' Sora said with a slight frown. 'Don't look at me like that; you never said anything either.'

Unable to deny this, Tai broke eye-contact with her and went on distractedly rubbing the back of his neck.

'If something's bothering you, you should just come out and say it,' she lectured him, sounding wholly unimpressed. 'I thought that was the way friends worked.'

'Look, I just had some stuff I wanted to sort out on my own is all,' Tai hastily tried to explain to his oldest friend. 'You should know by now that I'm not all that great when it comes to that kinda junk.'

'What: your feelings?'

Tai immediately shushed her, mindful of the many – and very uninterested – students passing them by in the hall.

'You can't just go around saying that stuff – it's embarrassing!'

Whereas Sora had appeared unimpressed before, she looked to be mightily so now.

'Real mature, Tai.'

'Say what you want,' was his rebuttal, 'guys just don't do feelings – it's just how we're built.'

'Do you hear yourself right now?'

'Just drop it, okay?' Tai was on the verge of pleading. 'Can't we just talk about how boring Math was or something? I'm don't feel like having the 'feelings talk' today.'

'Fine – have it your way,' Sora sighed as they started down the staircase. 'Did you hear that Joe's heading to Fukuoka this weekend? Apparently, he starts Monday.'

'You think he'll be okay down there?' Tai asked out of a genuine concern. 'I mean, this _is_ Joe we're talking about.'

'Give him a little credit,' said Sora, her voice then lowering to a soft whisper. 'He's the one who kept an eye on us in the Digital World, remember?'

'I guess so, but still: why'd it have to be all the way in Fukouka?'

'Because it's the college he wanted,' Sora stated as though it were glaringly obvious. 'Didn't you listen all the times he mentioned it?'

'I-I guess not…?' Tai chuckled, though he could almost feel his heart cringe in place of his body.

'At least he had a college in mind,' Sora went on as they came to shoe lockers. 'Have you even really thought about it yet?'

'I try not to think about it too much.'

'You can't stay a kid forever, Tai,' she lectured like a mother who was growing tired of explaining the same thing over and over. 'We all grow-up at some point.'

'That doesn't mean I have to like it.'

'Would you actually prefer being a kid forever to growing-up?'

Sora could bear the discussion no longer. 'C'mon – Matt said he'd be waiting by the gate.'

…

 _ **April 8**_ _ **th**_ _ **, 2005**_

 _ **Friday**_

 _ **Hanawa Junior-High School**_

Being the most personable member of the school basketball team, TK had found himself once again being nominated as their talent scout. His task was simple: to find any new blood that might benefit the club.

Such talent was not forthcoming, however, and drawing even a slightest interest from any of the new crop of freshmen had been like trying to draw that blood from a horde of Gatsumon.

It was not until 5 o'clock – more than an hour after the final bell tolled – that he threw in the towel. He was completely exhausted in both body and mind. Having tried to head off freshmen at the entrance and the school gates, he had found that they all to-a-man shared an incredible talent for dodging. TK wouldn't have minded the general apathy nearly as much if they hadn't all shown signs of the players they might have been on the way out.

Settling himself down on one of the benches in the school courtyard, TK released a weary sigh.

'We really need to raise our profile…' he mumbled to himself, using the heel of one of his palms to rub at his tired eyes. 'That was just embarrassing…'

'Oh, I know that face,' came a familiar voice from his left. 'Something on your mind?'

TK didn't so much a jump. Having long-since gotten used to Kari and her sneak attacks, he'd come to spend his days half-expecting them to happen.

'Oh, nothing – just that the basketball club's recruitment drive is only good for driving people away,' he sighed lamentably. 'As usual.'

She set herself down beside him and gave her best supportive smile.

'That bad, huh?'

'Worse than last year, anyway; at least then we managed to recruit two new members.'

'You couldn't find anyone who was interested?'

'I tried to,' he leant forward in his seat, training his gaze on the nearby flowerbed of chrysanthemums and lilies. 'They seem to think basketball's a little too American for them or something. Most of them said they preferred baseball instead.'

Kari pressed a finger to her bottom lip. 'Wait a minute, wouldn't baseball also be-?'

TK chuckled modestly. 'They ran off before I could explain that to them.'

'If they want a Japanese sport, then why not practice kendo?' she wondered aloud.

The blonde found himself grinning. 'Don't forget sumo wrestling.'

'I don't think that one would get any more interest than basketball, TK.'

'No, think about it, Kari: who _doesn't_ want to be a Yokozuna at our age?'

'… Most people?'

The pair laughed, both baffled by how they had managed to segue so casually from basketball to the sport of sumo. They had always shared a special connection to one another, ever since they'd first met during Myotismon's invasion. There was little else like saving worlds for forging the strongest of friendships. They'd been inseparable ever since.

'Still no word from Gennai?'

Kari shook her head. 'Not a peep,' she admitted. 'If it goes on for much longer then Tai will start ripping his hair out.'

'Well, at least it'll take him a while to go through it all.'

'TK!'

'You know I didn't mean it,' TK appeased, his hands raised in surrender. 'It's just how I deal with my nerves – you should know that about me by now.'

Kari looked to have a few words to say about that, but in the end the words tumbled from her lips as nothing more than a clumsy sigh.

'Maybe what Gennai's doing is for the best,' she said to change the subject. 'Honestly, I'd be more worried if he did get back to us this soon – it would make me think that something terrible had happened.'

'That's true… And – even if we did deal with those two – who's to say that more won't come through sooner or later?'

'I'd rather not think about that,' said Kari, 'but even if they did, there are a million other Digidestined besides us.'

TK hummed in acknowledgement of that fact.

'Maybe we're blowing this thing way out of proportion,' he thought aloud. 'I mean, someone must've beaten this whatever-it-is to seal it away in the first place, don't you think?'

'You're still here, TK?'

Unlike with Kari, this unexpected question did manage to catch the blonde off-guard. One of his teammates stood before them, his bag slung over his shoulder.

'I could say the same to you, Tomo,' TK returned a little bitterly. 'If you were here then why didn't you give me a hand?'

'Because I'm recruiting for the music club this year,' his friend stated matter-of-factly. 'I do both, remember?'

'Oh… Now that you mention it, that does ring a bell.'

'Yeah, well…' the boy waved his free hand as if in dismissal. 'Anyway, how'd it go on your end?'

'About as well as you'd expect.'

'… That bad, huh?'

TK's blue eyes drifted to Kari. 'I'm feel like I'm having the worst case of déjà vu right now.'

'Whatever you say,' Tomo said with a smile. 'So, what's this about a gate? You get a new video game over break?'

'Uh… Y-yeah, man,' TK hoped the unfortunate change of pitch didn't give away his lie. 'I was just telling Kari about this one level where you've got to break down a gate.'

'Well, good luck with that, man,' Tomo gave them both a parting nod. 'I'm heading home now – you guys might want to do the same before they lock you in.'

'We'll do that,' said Kari. 'We'll see you later, Tomo.'

'Yeah – later.'

And with that, Tomo continued on his merry way in the direction of the shoe lockers.

'You are such a bad liar,' Kari rather cheekily remarked, her face becoming almost rosy with an amused smile. 'How in the world did he buy _that_?'

'I'm just glad that he did,' TK half-yawned, too tired to partake in their usual back-and-forth. 'We should get going, as well.'

'How about grabbing a drink on the way home?' she proposed as they both rose to their feet. 'There's a new café I've been meaning to visit for a while now.'

'Well, I guess I could go for a coffee…' TK admitted. 'Let's do it.'

…

 _ **April 8th, 2005**_

 _ **Friday**_

 _ **In the City**_

It was only natural for Tokyo to reflect recent history, despite the city's best efforts to pretend otherwise.

With the repeated destruction – particularly of the Minato ward – in recent years, Cody supposed it would be far stranger not to sense such general unease. In truth, the entire world had become rather high-strung in the preceding six years, especially after Oikawa had delivered Digimon to cities around the globe only three short years ago. Although no one really commented on it, even an eleven-year-old kid like him had picked up on the increased police presence as of late.

In truth, however, Cody failed to see how more unarmed policemen would ward off a rogue Digimon, let alone if anything as calculating as Myotismon were to show up.

 _People are already scared as it is_ , Cody thought to himself. _If another bad Digimon comes to this world, then there's no telling how they might react._

It wasn't a pleasant thought, and so Cody cast his gaze out of the window beside him and down onto the city below. Being on an express train, the view of the city was rather panoramic, highlighting the many different buildings of the Minato ward, both big and small, traditional and modern. It was near-enough at the heart of the largest city on Earth. Were another Digimon to strike at that heart, there was no way of knowing how dire the consequences would be.

Cody scarcely noticed his train shuddered to a halt alongside his platform, only just managing to step out before the doors again sealed him in.

After several more minutes of walking through streets dyed in evening gold, he found his way to the little-known _Café Oro_. It was quiet inside apart from one booth in particular where his friends were sat waiting, themselves dressed in their individual junior-high and – in Yolei's case – high school uniforms.

'Took you long enough!' Davis chided as the boy took a seat. 'Serious, man, we've been waitin' forever for you!'

'Be glad he's here at all, Davis,' Yolei fired back. 'It might be Cody, but no eleven-year-old should have to catch a train on their own! You should've picked something closer to _him_!'

'Quit your whinin' – he got here, didn't he?'

'That isn't really the point, Davis,' Ken began in that unoffending way of his. 'This is supposed to be about Cody, so wouldn't it have made more sense to go where he was?'

'See – even Ken thinks so!'

'Ken, rein in the attack dog!' Davis recoiled from the girl as though anticipating what was to come.

'Oh, you asked for it-!'

'Uh, guys?' said Cody, causing all three of them to freeze in place. 'I didn't really mind – not to mention that you're making a scene.'

The boy spoke true: though there were only a few of them, the other customers had all turned toward them, the look in their eyes much more scathing than anything they could have said.

'Uh… Sorry 'bout that,' said Davis, the only one of the three not to go a shade of cherry. 'We'll keep it down.'

Seemingly satisfied, their fellow customers returned to their coffees and their cakes.

Davis settled himself back down, a low grumble tumbling from his lips. 'It's not like it's a library…'

In response, Yolei gave him a quieting nudge to the ribs. 'Shut up, Davis.'

'Urgh… Fine,' he said with a roll of the eyes. 'So, Cody, how's it feel hanging with the big kids now?'

'Good, I think,' said Cody as he reached across for the menu. 'This week was a bit more relaxed than I thought it would be.'

'That's good to hear,' Ken said brightly. 'Did you join the kendo club in the end?'

'I did, and it turns out that they have more members than I thought they would. Their coach told me that they've gotten a lot more interest over the last year or two.'

His voice remained as unruffled as ever, yet his friends could still tell that the boy was genuinely excited by what his school had to offer him. Excitement for Cody was like a ripple in a pool: there for one moment and still the next.

'How about you, Yolei?' Ken asked as he bridged his hands atop the table. 'How are you finding high school?'

'Great!' she said in a chipper tone. 'You hear lots of horror stories about it, but high school is actually a lot better than people think!'

'Isn't it kinda early to be sayin' that?' Davis cut in, a bored expression on his face. 'People who say that sorta stuff usually end up makin' an enemies list.'

'No need to worry,' said Yolei as her eyebrows quivered, 'You'll always top _that_ list, _Davis_.'

'Guys,' Cody interrupted coolly, 'you're making a scene again.'

'It's been a long week,' said Ken, eager to pacify the situation and avoid any further glares if he could. 'Let's just take the chance to unwind a little before we have to head home.'

'That's kinda hard to do when Gennai hasn't got back to us.'

'That's not why we're here, Davis,' the raven-haired boy hastened to end any and all discussion about the Digital World in such a public space. 'We don't have to worry about that for now, so let's just enjoy ourselves, okay?'

His friend groaned and scratched at the back of his head. 'I guess you've got a point.'

'That's more like it,' said Cody. 'Now then, what should we order?'

…

 **A/N:** As junior-high goes up to age 15 and high school starts at the same age in Japan, it was kind of a toss-up as to where Yolei would end up, chronologically speaking.

In the end, I decided to place her in high school. Davis, Ken and Cody all attend different middle schools, based upon the greatest convenience for the Motomiya, Ichijouji and Hida families. They, too, are separated.

As for Gennai's portals, we must remember that he is an administrator of the Network. Manipulating information and data is par for the course where he and his buddies are concerned.

See you all later!


	3. The Call to Arms

**A/N:** A shorter chapter this time around, mainly due to time-constraints in the last few weeks. As a result, its been shaved down a bit from what I'd originally wanted it to be, but I'm hoping that its turned out alright nonetheless.

I can report that this will be the last purely 'talkie' chapter – at least as the story stands right now, but certainly for the time being.

Feel free to tell me if you think the writing needs changing in any way, guys! I'm open to critique, plus I realise that I need work with the 'talkie' chapters since I'm a battle-loving barbarian of a writer. If you have any suggestions on how I could improve your reading of non-battle scenes going forward, feel free to say so!

With that said, let's be getting on with it, shall we?

…

 _ **April 9**_ _ **th**_ _ **, 2005**_

 _ **Saturday**_

 _ **Izumi Residence**_

Come Saturday morning, the lack of communication from Gennai had finally begun to grate on even the steeliest of nerves among the Digidestined. It marked the start of the sixth day since last any of them had seen or spoken with him – something which was both deeply worrying as well as very frustrating.

Near the stroke of noon, however, that would all to change with the simple pings and chimes of their cell phones: their awaited message had finally come through.

 **From: UNKNOWN CONTACT**

 _ **It took us a while, but we've managed to locate them. See you soon**_ **.**

Not one of the Digidestined who read the message had any doubts about its sender. Only Mimi and Joe were none-the-wiser about it, the former being comfortably nestled in her bed and the latter being some several thousand feet in the air en route to the island of Kyushu. Everyone else held their phones tightly, awaiting the instructions which would arrive a few short minutes later.

 **From: IZZY**

 _ **Everyone who can, meet up at my place; we can go over what we know before we head in.**_

Without a moment's hesitation, those who had read the message immediately reached for their Digivices and made for their doors. They all moved as quickly as their legs would allow, charging through the busy streets as if competing in their own personal marathons. After all the waiting they'd done, not one of them could stomach the thought of even one more moment being wasted.

The race to reach the Izumi apartment was won by Sora, who happened to live only a few short blocks away. The others began to trickle in one-after-the-other with time, their faces slick with sweat and chests almost puffing-out as if they were an army of breathless frogs. Luckily for them, Mrs Izumi had left a tray atop Izzy's desk, topped with glasses of water they were all immensely grateful to see upon arrival.

'Not that my mom's a slouch or anythin',' Davis sighed after taking a large swig of drink, 'but I think your mom is pretty darn cool, Izzy.'

'That makes two of us,' Tai said while wiping away the sweat at his brow with his forearm.

Izzy, who was sat at his desk, could only chuckle awkwardly at the praise, a silence which Sora seized upon to express for him what he himself couldn't.

'You guys know that you sound like a pair of creepers, right?'

'You know what we mean,' Tai fired back without any offence taken. 'Anyway, forget about that. Are we still waiting on anyone?'

'Ken still isn't here,' said Yolei, who, like Cody and Davis, had arrived early and thus claimed Izzy's bed as their seat of choice, leaving those who had arrived afterwards to sit together in a huddle on the floor. 'I think that he might be stuck on the subway.'

'He told me as much,' said Izzy, picking up and waving his cell phone as if to make a point. 'His train is a few minutes out; he said that we should start without him and to fill him in when he gets here.'

'That explains Ken,' Davis glanced about the room, crossing those who were there off of a metal list of those who could be. 'Mimi's over in New York… Huh? Is Joe's a no-show?'

'He'll be on his way to Fukuoka right now,' said Kari, who didn't notice the slight frown this brought to her brother's face. 'What about Mimi? Has anyone heard from her?'

'I highly doubt that any of us will,' said Izzy. 'I looked it up before you all got here, and it's getting pretty late in New York. She's probably at home with her parents, so disappearing right now wouldn't exactly go unnoticed.'

'That means that we're going to be two short,' Matt surmised with folded arms. 'That makes ten of us in total – or it will when Ken gets here, anyway. I'd've thought that would be more than enough for two jokers.'

'No kidding,' Tai was quick to say. 'Ten of us should be enough – it's the number we'd need to play a game basketball, so it works for me.'

Their leader smiled to himself, quite satisfied with the turnout.

That is, until he noticed the baffled look which TK was sending his way.

'Did I say something funny, TK?'

'N-not at all,' TK snapped out of the daze caused by his mind having stalled. 'I just never would have guessed that you'd know about a sport that wasn't soccer, Tai.'

'If there's nothing else on, then what choice is there?' Tai put to him. 'Let's just say I'm trying something different and leave it at that, okay?'

'That's okay, but if you ever want someone to talk to about it-,' the blonde boy offered with a smile. 'I might not look it, but I happen to know a thing or two about B-ball.'

'I'll keep that in mind,' said Tai, who was unable to keep a grin off of his face; it was rare to see so much as a wrinkle on her forehead, so to see his little sister's mask slip even for an instant and reveal a brief snapshot of panic and alarm made the lie he had just told seem completely worth it. 'If Ken's okay with it, then why don't you tell us about this plan of yours, Izzy?'

'Sure – just give me a second to set up and we'll get started.'

Izzy turned around in his seat to face his waiting laptop. After a moment of tapping at the keyboard, he shifted his seat aside so that everyone could see what he had brought up: the Digimon Analyser program. Izzy then rifled through his pocket and retrieved his Digivice, placing it into the very slot that Gennai had fashioned into his computer back during the time of his adventure in the Digital World.

Shifting through the many profiles of Digimon whom he had personally met with, Izzy quickly found his way to and settled on one he had been searching for: it was a profile none of his friends had seen before, complete with its own image of a certain frightful-looking insect.

'I'm sure no introduction is necessary,' he continued. 'According to this, GranKuwagamon is a Mega-level insect Digimon who used to be considered just as much of a natural disaster as that earthquake he set off when we saw him last week. It also says here that his kind went extinct a long time ago.'

'Huh… That's kinda cool,' Davis said a little too blithely for the others' liking, which earned himself disapproving looks from some of them. 'What're you lookin' at me like that for? Don't you think it's pretty amazin' that this thing's bounced back from extinction?'

Matt's eyes were coldest of all, the icy blue seeming to almost freeze-over as he stared at his junior Digidestined. 'You realise that we're talking about a giant killer bug, right? "Cool" isn't how I'd describe it – not even close.'

'Urgh, are you kiddin' me right now?' Davis groaned, his mood in a free-fall. 'How's 'bout you get off my case and go pull out that stick you've got jammed up your-'

Sensing trouble, Tai immediately got onto his knees, utilising his great mop of hair as a partition to keep the pair out of one another's line of sight.

'Here's an idea: how about we _don't_ waste energy fighting each other?'

Matt looked primed to argue – that is, until his girlfriend fixed him with a glare so fierce that it made the blonde's heart seize with the fear that her gaze might bore twin holes into his head if he said something that she didn't want to hear.

'You remember what we talked about,' Sora whispered at him, ' _right_?'

'I know,' he hissed back. 'I'm trying!'

'Well try harder!'

'Um… S-so, anyway…' Tai pressed ahead as though none of them could hear the couple arguing in hushed voices. Likely to distract himself, the older boy leaned back onto his rear and propped one arm atop his knee. 'What's your computer got to say about the other one?'

Izzy visibly deflated at the question – so much so that it even brought a sudden ceasefire to Matt and Sora's quarrelling.

'That bad, huh?'

The boy cleared his throat before answering him. 'Let's just say it wasn't what I'd thought that it would be and leave it at that.'

'Okay… Did you find whatever it was that you were looking for in the end?'

'I found _something_ alright. Take a look.'

Izzy pressed the enter key, which moved the screen on from GranKuwagamon and onto the next profile. It was immediately obvious even at a distance that there was a problem: where there was supposed to be text, there was only nonsensical scripts of non-words. Such was its gibberish that made even less sense than if the entry had been input by someone who typed with their fists.

'Dude… What is that?' Davis gawped, his eyes narrowing as if it would help make the mess clearer. 'This bites… I'd have better luck readin' it through those culture dishes Yolei has for glasses.'

There was a blur of lavender as a set of knuckles were driven deep into Davis' ribcage.

' _OW!_ ' he wheezed. ' _I WAS KIDDING!_ '

Yolei harrumphed and turned her face away from his, not buying it for an instant.

'Ignore them,' Tai said, suddenly short of patience. 'Care to tell us what the deal is, Izzy?'

'Your guess is as good as mine; it doesn't matter what I do or how much I try to fix it, it just keeps generating a bunch of mumbo-jumbo,' Izzy sighed deeply and tiredly pinched the bridge his nose. 'It's honestly felt as if the closest I'd get to a break-through with this mess was with my blood-pressure…'

Despite the discomfort shared by everyone who had listened, Tai nonetheless forced himself to smile up at his friend. 'We're all grateful, Izzy,' he said. 'If it's busted, then it's busted. There's no need to push yourself so hard to fix it.'

'It's not the laptop's fault,' Izzy stated, his hand slipping back down onto his lap. 'I should know: I conducted two diagnostics just to be sure without finding a single issue either time.'

'So then it's got to be the _file_ that's corrupted,' Yolei suggested, her cheeks still slightly rosy from Davis' jibe. 'It'd definitely make the most sense.'

'Precisely the conclusion I came to,' he said with a nod. 'In all honesty, it reminded me a lot of the Dark Rings and how they would corrupt a Digimon's data – but it would have to be on a completely different scale for it to affect my Digivice like this.'

'Surely there must be something,' Cody persisted. 'Does it at least provide us with a name?'

Izzy shook his head so stiffly that it seemed as though it were fixed to his spine by naught but a rusty hinge.

'Given how little I've been able to get from the Analyser, we have to consider the very real possibility that this thing may not even be a Digimon – at least not in the sense that we understand them.'

'I don't understand,' Sora spoke up, her brows knit with confusion. 'It told us things about Apocalymon when we met him – are you telling us that this creature is even less of a Digimon than he was?'

'That's what I spent the week trying to figure out, Sora,' Izzy said before quickly adding, 'when I wasn't at school, anyway. We have the data for GranKuwagamon, but as far as the other one goes, there's just nothing.'

'Then we'll just have to play it safe,' Matt declared. 'Back before we even had the Digimon Analyser, we had to gauge how strong the Digimon we were fighting was. All it really means is going back to the basics.'

TK shared a look with Kari beside him, but neither of them were able to come up with any kind of counter-argument. Nevertheless, both had their concerns. The newer kids had never had to go in blind before – a truth which extended to Kari as well when Parrotmon was discounted. Needless to say, neither of them could see Davis or Yolei employing tactics outside of full-frontal assault. They hoped dearly that they were greatly underestimating their teammates, but wordlessly agreed that they would have to be extra-careful.

TK swallowed back his worries like a bitter pill. 'Data or no data, we still have to do something before they hurt any innocent Digimon. We may not know much about the other one, but GranKuwagamon could cause some serious damage if it wanted to.'

Davis nodded to this vigorously. 'TK's right; we've busted some serious bad Digis in our time, and we'll do it again!'

'That might be the plan, but we still need to keep our guard up, Davis,' Sora advised gently before Matt could get a word in edgeways. 'That means no trying to play the hero – understand?'

'Yeah, I know.'

'Davis,' Kari cut in, 'promise us that you won't.'

'You, too?'

'Davis-'

'Alright, already – I _promise_!'

'That's all I ask,' Kari said, though she couldn't help but notice an unfamiliar sting from the boy. After a second's pause, she decided it better to think about it later and pressed on. 'Has Gennai told us where to find them, Izzy?'

The older boy nodded.

'Just after we received Gennai's text message, I received an email with this attached,' he explained, minimising the Analyser program and bringing up instead a large topographical map. 'The problem we have is that,' he pressed his finger to the screen atop a red dot, 'one of them is here, and the other-,' he dragged his finger along until it came to a second dot, '-is _waaay_ over here.'

'They separated?' Cody blurted. 'Is that the reason that it's taken so long to find them?'

'It's the only explanation I can think of,' he said. 'I doubt that Gennai would have kept us waiting for no reason.'

It wasn't welcome news, which was why Tai went out on a limb to look at the bright side. '… That might be a good thing: they can't double-team us.'

'But that means we can't team-up on them either,' Yolei pointed out – something with which Tai could not argue. 'Let's say these Digimon are as bad-to-the-bone as we think they are: going after one would just mean leaving the other on its own for a while. Who's to say what they could get up to before we can get to it?'

Everyone sat up a little straighter, their imaginations going into overdrive. They could all picture the devastation that a Mega like GranKuwagamon could cause, having all seen their fair share of the wrack and ruin a Mega-level Digimon could leave behind when it wanted to. As an unknown quantity, its friend was every bit as worrying. Left alone, there was no telling how badly going after them one-by-one could go.

Sighing deeply, Tai folded his arms and crossed his legs to really think. He had never professed to be a genius tactician, but even he could see the fallout of their making a bad call.

In the end, there was only one thing they could do.

'If it's like that, then I guess that fighting them both at the same time would be our safest bet.'

Izzy couldn't help but agree. 'It certainly seems that way… We could break up into two teams, but the distance would make one backing the other up impossible. Once we're in there, we'd be on our own.'

'Or we could just sit here talking about it all day,' Matt said sarcastically with an assertiveness that startled everyone, even Sora. 'Those things wouldn't have been locked away for community service – if they're dangerous, then we can't afford to waste any more time.'

'Making two teams should be simple enough,' said Cody. 'The older kids can make up one team and we newer kids can make up the other.'

'I think that would be best as well,' said Izzy. 'The teams would more or less be the same size, not to mention that we older kids have very experience of actually working as a team with you guys. In this situation, we really can't afford team dynamics to get in the way.'

'I guess that settles everything,' said Sora, smiling at the sense of having made some actual progress after almost a week having been lost. 'Now all that there's left to do is wait for Ken and we'll be set.'

'I'd say that he shouldn't be more than five more minutes,' Izzy postulated, glancing absently out of his window at the street outside. 'We should use that time to get ready. This time we'll be going in more or less blind, so it's important that we keep ourselves focused.'

The group hummed together at hearing this, their hearts set and minds focused. If for no other reason, they felt that Centarumon deserved the closure of knowing that those who had left his home as rubble hadn't been allowed to run amok and destroy the homes of others or rob them of their lives. They were under no illusions that it would be an easy battle, but it was one that they as the Digidestined had been chosen to fight, and one which they intended on winning.

…

 **A/N:** Sorry for the short chapter, but things have been a bit manic on my end as of late. For the past few weeks, it's been writing a minute here and another minute there… You get the picture.

Anyway, I'm glad this chapter is finally done and out there. Next time we'll be returning to an old pastime of mine, not to mention a personal favourite: writing battle scenes.

I hope that I'll see you guys there!


	4. An Emperor Falls

**A/N:** So… it's been seven weeks now, huh?

Sorry it's taken so long for an update, you guys. I hope the uber-long chapter helps make up for that.

I think I'll stick to shorter chapters than this one from now on – I'm completely wiped out! I've been working on this thing and revising it almost every day!

I've tried changing my narrative style a little bit in this one. It'd be much appreciated if you could tell me whether it read better or worse.

Thanks guys.

…

 _ **April 9**_ _ **th**_ _ **, 2005**_

 _ **Saturday**_

 _ **The Digital World**_

All shut their eyes against the glow of the Digi-Port as it opened. They had stood before Izzy's computer screen with their shoes in their hands, but when next they opened their eyes it was to grassland which rolled on and on toward the horizon on all fronts. A gentle breeze swept over them, making the grass around their socks dance and tickle their feet.

They all immediately knelt down to slip their shoes back on, but Matt was still unhappy at Sora's insistence that they not wear them in the first place. He hadn't even realised that he was glaring at her until she glared right on back at him.

'I know what you're going to say, but you can't just walk around someone's house with your shoes on, Matt,' Sora said huffily as she tamped her covered feet into the ground. 'It's bad manners.'

'We got lucky this time,' Matt countered. 'We could've just as easily wound up in a swamp.'

'And just what good would sneakers be in a swamp? Swamps are usually waist-deep, in case you didn't know.'

'Could you guys stop?' Yolei pleaded, her stomach already flipping at the thought of squelching through mud in nothing but her socks. 'Ugh… I feel sick just imagining it.'

Davis rolled his eyes. 'Then don't go thinkin' about it, genius.' Yolei stopped dry-heaving long enough to lift a finger at him. He found it hilarious. 'Bad Grandma! Bad!'

'I hate you so much right now.'

'I'd hate to burst your bubble,' Izzy cut in, 'but we've already got enough problems on our hands without the four of you arguing.'

'You got that right,' said TK, taking in their environs. 'Just where in the world are we?'

'The portal's never been all that reliable,' said Izzy, cupping his chin in thought. 'Still, it's always placed us in the vicinity of where we were needed before.'

'You say that, but I'm not seeing any sign of bad guy around here,' said Tai. 'This has to be the wrong place.'

'It's unlikely that the Digi-Port would only now go on the fritz,' Ken told him, his breath ragged from his mad dash from the train station to the Izumi residence. 'Izzy's right: the portal would have taken us where we needed to go.'

'Uh-huh.'

' _Tai_ ,' Kari frowned.

'Yeah, yeah – I know,' Tai backtracked. 'This place just doesn't seem all that 'needy' if you ask me.'

Even TK was struggling to put a positive spin on the situation. 'I guess the portal was playing up… Should we go back and try again?'

'It wouldn't matter, dude.'

'Huh? Why's that, Davis?'

'Because there's no TV set,' Davis turned side-face as if he were surveying the ground at their feet. 'We can't open a gate without one, remember?'

The others quickly inspected their immediate surroundings, hoping that they could prove Davis wrong. This provoked a bit of a problem, however, when they realised that he had a point. No TV set rested by their feet, just as there hadn't been the last time they had come to the Digital World.

'Possibly,' Izzy wracked his brains to try and comprehend what had happened. 'Although we have opened portals without them in the past…'

'Not from this side we didn't,' said Sora. 'We've opened portals on our own, but that was from the Real World into this one – not the other way around.'

'Not to mention that we don't have a million Digivices to work with this time,' said Cody . 'We have ten.'

Ken mimicked Izzy and adopted a thinking posture. Both did their best to keep a level-head and think, but it was honestly much more difficult than either cared to let on.

That was when they caught sight of a sudden flash just out of the corner of their eyes. They turned as one to it, finding something where only a moment ago there had been nothing: a frame of light, shimmering like a pond in the sunshine. This alone would have been plenty strange enough, but it got even unusual when a man stepped out from within this light.

'It's Gennai!' they chorused.

'Ah – not quite,' the man waved his hands and had a strained smile on his face. 'I realise how it might look, but I'm not Gennai,' he lay a hand over his chest as if he were addressing foreigners. 'My name is Benjamin.'

Davis' face lit up at once. 'Oh! You're the Gennai who helped me and Veemon in New York!'

Benjamin's smile became a little more strained. 'T-that's right, but I'd prefer it if you didn't call me "the Gennai" – it's _Benjamin_.'

'Okay, we get it: you aren't Gennai,' Matt rubbed his throbbing temples. 'Would you mind telling us where he is?'

'My colleagues are all busy right now studying that gate you found,' said Benjamin, ignoring the glare that the blonde boy sent Izzy's way the moment he had said it. 'I should be getting back to them soon, but first I mean to get you all on your way.'

'But how could you know that we were way out here in the boonies?' Yolei asked him as she brushed a loose strand of hair out of her face.

'Your Digivices give off signals that allow them to track each other,' Benjamin explained. 'Does it really surprise you that we would be capable of doing this as well?'

'I… Well…'

'You did turn up quite far from where we had expected; we should count ourselves lucky that we were able to find you at all.'

'Okay…' Davis butted in, 'but how come we ended up comin' here in the first place?'

Matt's brow furrowed crossly. 'Now _that's_ a good question.'

'It's to be expected; your Digivices respond to dark forces,' said Benjamin, slipping his hands behind his back. 'Your light and the darkness call to one another like magnets. Tell me: what would happen, then, should that darkness head in different directions?'

Izzy sighed. 'We've been pulled in somewhere between the two,' he answered. 'Is that what you're telling us?'

Benjamin nodded.

'Meaning we're nowhere near where we should be…' Sora pinched her eyes wearily. 'Typical.'

'Now, now – I did say that I was here to help,' Benjamin half-turned and dipped a hand into the shimmer as if it were as natural as testing bathwater. 'Think of it as an olive branch.'

Benjamin pulled his hand free of the light. Multiple questions popped into the minds of the Digidestined, but they didn't quite get the opportunity to put them to anyone before they were cut off by the small barrage of happy surprises that came running out one-after-the-other.

It was their Digimon partners.

'Agumon!'

'Hey – Veemon!'

These were overjoyed cries of Tai and Davis. The others weren't nearly as loud or obnoxious, but they, too, were elated at the sight of their partners and swept each of them up into their waiting embrace.

Tai laughed so hard his gut ached. He hadn't seen Agumon in months – something which applied just as much to the rest of the Digidestined as it did him. It had been the Christmas season when last they'd seen any of their partner Digimon. They had all expressed an interest in going on a world tour of that which they had spent all of their time saving – a request none of the children had neither the right nor the inclination to deny.

Still, in spite of the seriousness of the situation, they were all overjoyed to see one another after such a long time apart.

'How've you been?' Tai asked as he gave his favourite dinosaur a non-noogie.

'Hahaha… C'mon, Tai, quit it.'

'Sure thing, buddy.'

Cody was just as excited. 'How's the world tour been, Armadillomon?'

'Better 'n you woulda believed!' Armadillomon told him. 'I've seen a lot of the Digital World in my time, Cody, but now I've seen plenty more of it!' he spoke merrily, but his smile did falter a little after that. 'Whole lotta work, though. I might just be lighter 'n you are now!'

'We're thinking about heading out again once this is all over,' said Gatomon. 'You don't have a problem with that – right, Kari?'

'Of course not,' the girl smiled and pulled her in for another hug. 'I'm just sorry you had to make this little detour for our sake.'

'I'll always be there when you need me, Kari; you just say the word.'

'I'll be sure to keep that in mind.'

Matt was smiling also, looking his partner dead in the eye as he asked him: 'Are you feeling up to this, Gabumon?'

'You really need to ask at this point?'

'You're right,' he chuckled, getting to his feet. 'Sorry for the dumb question,' he said before gazing around at the other Digimon and savouring the moment of sentimentality – though it was in doing this that he noticed a couple of absentees and turned to Benjamin. 'How'd you know that we wouldn't need Palmon or Gomamon?'

'Your Digivices each give off a signal,' the agent repeated calmly. 'I sensed that two of you hadn't arrived and acted accordingly.'

No one contested the decision. The fact of the matter was that – without Mimi and Joe – the two could go no further than the Rookie-level. None of the present Digidestined were particularly happy with having them play benchwarmers this time around, but it was for their own safety. Trying to think up ways that Joe and Mimi's forgiveness could be earned for the unthinkable was one worry that they couldn't afford.

Benjamin smiled sympathetically. 'I understand how you must feel but believe me when I say that this is in everyone's best interests. Now, with that said-'

He pulled his arm through the air in an almost lazy sweeping motion, generating another two portals to either side of him.

'These will take you where you need to go,' Benjamin assured them. 'I've made it so that they should appear on your Digivices.'

Everyone quickly inspected the mapping function of their devices and found that he was right. Twelve blips were flashing on-and-off: their ten Digivices and the two portals which were meant for them.

'I assume you've already decided who's going where,' he paused briefly and allowed them all to nod back. 'Good. Now, once you've stepped through these portals I'll redirect them so you don't just end up coming back here. As I've just said, you can keep track of them via your Digivices, so you should have no trouble finding them once you're finished.

'Now I'll ask you the most important question of all: are you all ready?'

'Definitely,' Tai said without contest.

'Then I wish you luck, my friends. Make sure to be careful.'

…

 _ **?**_

The very instant the older kids and their Digimon partners stepped out from their portal, a chill bit them down all the way to their bones. It was far from freezing, but the four humans all had the same sudden yearning for coats.

' _Man, it's cold!_ ' Tai clenched his teeth and immediately began rubbing his arms for even a hint of warmth. 'Where the heck is this?'

It was no easy question to answer, for a thick fog clung to the air so densely that Tai almost mistook it for floating wool. After all his years in the Digital World, it would hardly have been the most jaw-dropping thing he'd ever come across. It was not so much cold as it was chilly, misting everyone's breaths so that it would blend in with the already thick veil.

Sora rubbed her own arms to combat the chill. 'Why is it we never have any warm clothes whenever we turn up in places like this?'

Matt made his way to her side, though he couldn't even pretend that he was feeling any warmer than his girlfriend did. Ever since his almost-becoming-a-snowman experience back when File Island had been fragmented, he'd never been very fond of even slightly chilly days.

'It isn't that bad, Tai!' Agumon told his partner in hopes of cheering him up. 'This isn't as bad as that time Frigimon gave us a piggyback!'

'Thanks for trying, Agumon, but you're not making it any better.'

'I'll say!' Tentomon buzzed with all four of his arms crossed. 'I'm not meant for this sort of climate!'

Tai rounded on him with his own arms folded. 'What, and the rest of us are?'

Biyomon moved as jerkily as a pigeon. 'T-T-Tentomon's right; the s-sooner we leave, t-the better,' she shivered. 'S-Sora, can we make this quick? I don't like it here…'

'You and me both, Biy; it is _freezing_.'

'It is?' Gabumon said quite innocently, ignorant of the jealous stares he and his fur coat were getting. 'Is it really that bad, Matt?'

Matt's sigh stretched out in front of him as it misted like a long and miserable note. 'Let's just try and stay on our toes.'

'I'm one step ahead of you,' said Gabumon, '… although I don't _have_ any toes.'

The blonde sighed again. It represented a small, infinitesimal break in the conversation, but it was just long enough that something other than words filled their ears. Everyone put their guard up and gazed out blindly at the fog. They listened carefully for the noise and heard it more clearly the second time: it was the unmistakable creaking of a tree.

'Heads up, guys,' Tai whispered. 'We might have company.'

Judging from the sound of it, none of them felt the need to doubt this. It sounded a lot like listening to squeaky floorboards, only louder. Being prolonged proved helpful, for it didn't take the group long to pinpoint which direction it was coming from. In truth, having their ears trained on it also helped a lot in hearing another layer of noise underneath the creaking.

They could hear someone groaning.

'It sounds like somebody might be hurt,' Sora whispered uncertainly.

Matt lay a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. 'Don't let your guard down,' he told her quietly. 'For all we know, it could be the thing we're after making those noises to confuse us.'

'I'm not so sure about that,' said Biyomon. 'Whoever that is, they sound really hurt.'

Tai considered it a moment and glanced over his shoulder at the rest of the team.

'We won't know unless we go check,' he told them. 'Stick together and be ready in case things go south. Okay?'

The others all nodded, including Matt. He still had his reservations, but nonetheless decided to go along with Tai's plan – just so long as it was done cautiously.

Huddling up, the group slowly stepped out into the fog, using only what they could hear as their guides. They couldn't have taken more than ten steps in the direction of the sounds when they spotted a faint shadow just ahead of them. Its scale was huge, outdoing them both horizontally and vertically by a large margin. Nerve-wracking as this was, they pushed themselves to go forward an extra few steps. As the gap between was closed, the shadow took on a more solid shape and even a bit of colour. It was long and bulky, with rough skin and a bushy top to one side.

'A tree?' Sora blurted, annoyed with herself for getting so worked up about it. 'Why would a tree make all this noise?'

'That isn't a normal tree,' Tentomon told her, his tone lifting with what sounded like astonishment. 'That tree is alive!'

A dreadful feeling of nausea bubbled in the pit of Matt's stomach. The more he looked at the shape of the shadow, the more a certain unpleasant memory was stirred. Given the way Gabumon suddenly leapt in front of him, it seemed that his partner had come to same conclusion that he had. The blonde gnashed his teeth together as the groaning started once more. He had never forgotten the voice behind those pained moans, despite his best efforts to do exactly that.

'Cherrymon,' he growled to himself.

'Huh? You know this tree?' Tai blurted in surprise.

'… We've met.'

'So, who is he?'

'He used to be a friend of Puppetmon's.'

Having the Digimon identified did a lot to put them at ease. Of course, hearing Puppetmon's name was enough to keep them on-edge, but a phantom from their past wasn't the immediate concern, and neither were his former cronies – least of all wounded ones.

Tentomon hovered around and gave the felled tree a quick examination. 'Oh, my… He appears to be rather injured.'

They all took a cautious step forward so that they could see for themselves in spite of the fog. Cherrymon lay with his face just above the dirt. The wrinkled bark that made up said face was quivering, which gave off the squeaking sounds they had been hearing. He appeared to be in rather rough shape, if the hack marks covering his bark from top-to-bottom was anything to go by. It was as if a small army of axeman had really gone to town on the wizened old Digimon.

'Who did this to you?' Biyomon asked him. 'Are you still with us, Cherrymon?'

The bark opened in two places, revealing a pair of glowing yellow eyes. There was very little to them, yet somehow they could all tell that Cherrymon wasn't at all happy to see them.

'You… What are you doing here…?'

'Forget about that,' Tai observed the tree's wounds and shivered at the thought of how they would have felt were Cherrymon a human. 'What happened to you? Tell us and maybe we can help.'

'No…' the tree shook with what might have passed for a wince. 'Look, I've been round – and on – the block more times than you can count, kid. Leave me be.'

'Did you get in a fight with someone?' asked Sora.

'Why? He some friend of yours?'

'That's not something one of our friends would do,' she snapped quite heatedly. 'What did this Digimon look like?'

'Some oversized beetle,' Cherrymon grimaced. 'Started wrecking my whole forest, so I took my boys to go and went to kick it out… Cut through us like we were paper… I'm the only one who made it out…'

'An oversized beetle,' Izzy repeated to himself. 'That can only mean GranKuwagamon.'

'You said this was a forest, right?' Tai asked him. 'Which way do we go to find this thing?'

'You mean you bozos don't recognise this place?' Cherrymon chuckled, though it might also have been a spate of pained gagging. 'Heh… Not that there'll be much _to_ recognise soon enough. Heh-heh-heh…'

'This is important!' Tai thundered, disregarding the idea that he needed to retain some sort of bedside manner. 'Which way do we go?! We need you to tell us that, Cherrymon!'

'Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh… heh-heh… Hrugh… O-oh…'

And with that final utterance, Cherrymon evaporated into a cloud of data bytes in front of their very eyes.

'Cherrymon…' Biyomon mumbled, a sad note in her voice.

Still, there was work to be done. They couldn't afford to get side-tracked, and it was Tai's job to make sure that they didn't, even at the cost of sounding heartless. That was the burden he had to bear as leader.

'Tough it out, you guys,' he said, sensing the same natural sadness in the others that he himself felt whenever they had to witness a Digimon die. 'If we don't focus up, then the same'll happen to someone else.'

'But Tai, we can barely see each other in all this fog,' Izzy argued. 'This goes way beyond what people usually mean by a 'needle in a haystack'.'

'Actually, it looks as if Cherrymon might have given us a hand with that,' Matt told them, pointing down to where Cherrymon had just been lying.

As morbid as it was, it seemed rather fortuitous that the old Digimon had been as heavyset as he had been. It looked as if he had been dragging himself through the forest, judging by the shallow trench he had left behind, running on like a pathway into the shroud of white.

'Odds are that that's our ticket to GranKuwagamon,' Matt suggested, feeling it a safe bet to assume so. 'What do you think? It's got to be worth a shot, at least.'

'You've got me there,' Tai conceded, thinking the idea over for a long moment. 'Looks like our only option is to follow it for now,' he said, gesturing for the others to remaining close. 'C'mon, guys; it looks like we've got some walking to do.'

…

 _ **?**_

It didn't matter how many corners they rounded or what street they would walk the length of, for the younger kids were every bit as lost as their teammates were. Distance may have separated them, but both groups' lack of direction was a problem shared.

What set them apart was that while the older kids had emerged in the heart of a forest, their peers had done so in a city. Buildings boxed them in on all sides, leaving only narrow streets and even narrower alleyways with which to traverse it. So inconvenient was its architecture that the pathways and roads seemed almost as if they had been an afterthought – something the architect simply happened to have included in his blueprints. It was the sort of cramped and uncomfortable place only a sardine could love.

Between this lack of living space and the almost-smothering smog which clung to and coloured its sky grey, it seemed the only 'natural' thing about the city was that it would stand silent; a fact that Davis finally tired of.

'Talk about a ghost-town, huh?' he grumbled while his gloved fingers scratched at his scalp.

Yolei rounded on him at once.

'Don't even joke about that; you know that stuff freaks me out.'

'Yeah, yeah – I know: a Bakemon came and snatched you back then,' Davis then said in a much lower voice: 'I've only had to hear you whine about it a gillion times…'

'I'm _this close_ to smacking you upside the head, Davis!'

'Take your best shot, grandma!'

'Stop it – both of you!' Hawkmon cut in, matching their pace so that he could walk in-between them. 'Can you at least _try_ to get along, or will Veemon and I have to separate you?'

'He was making fun of my glasses!' Yolei started, indignant.

'Can it not wait until later? Now isn't a good time to be fighting one another.'

' _-Fine!_

 _-Fine!_ '

'Good,' Hawkmon huffed before adopting a more serious tone. 'That aside, something has been bothering me for quite some time now: every window that we've passed has been empty.'

'That's true,' Cody said suddenly, as if he had just been thinking the exact same thing. 'I can't even imagine a town being this quiet, let alone a city as big as this one.'

Ken ground to a halt, his face taut with worry.

'Do… Do you think that might have gotten here too late?'

TK stopped as well, his response sharp and unequivocal. 'We don't know that. It's a little early to start jumping to conclusions.'

'You say that, but-'

'TK's right, Ken,' Davis pitched in. 'We're in the Digital World, where what you see isn't always what you get.'

Wormmon agreed whole-heartedly. 'Don't worry, Ken; I know this place is kind of spooky, but we have our friends with us. It doesn't matter what we find if we find it as a team, don't you think?'

'… Mm,' the boy took a deep breath to help himself unwind a little. 'I'm sorry, Wormmon. You shouldn't have to deal with someone like me who's a walking panic-attack waiting to happen.'

'Yeah – that's Gomamon's job,' Gatomon said it in all seriousness, and was rather surprised that it roused a laugh out of the group. 'I don't get it; what are you all laughing for? Kari?'

Her partner smiled down at her, wiping a tear from her eye. 'It's nothing, Gatomon. We're just being silly is all.'

The group made to press ahead, but Cody didn't budge. He had been the only one too distracted to join in with the laughter. Like an anchor, he brought those pulling ahead of him to a stop as well. His four-legged partner twisted round to face him.

'Something botherin' you, Cody?'

'I enjoy walking as much as anyone, but that isn't the reason we came here,' he broached. 'Just looking from street-to-street will only wear us out before we find either of them.'

The others either looked away or looked to each other as this set in. A problem they hadn't anticipated was the distinct lack of mass destruction or even the sounds that went with it; it was so quiet, in fact, that they could hear a slight breeze run through the streets every now and then like blood pumping through someone's veins. The city was still, as if it were a snapshot given shape but not life.

'Hmm… Now that'cha mention it, it _is_ kinda boring out here…' Veemon looked down the what remained of the umpteenth street they'd walked down since getting here and sighed. 'He might be right about this one, Davish.'

His partner more than matched his sigh and then folded his arms. 'I've seen enough scary movies to know that splittin' is just askin' for trouble,' he said before smirking at Yolei. 'Heh. And you thought those things'd just rot my brain.'

'I was right, wasn't I?'

'Why, you-!'

'Humans can be so silly,' said Patamon.

Hawkmon's wings were akimbo; he couldn't have put it better himself.

'Given at least one of them is a Mega, you'd think that they would take this a little more seriously,' Gatomon huffed, her tail swishing with the sharpness of a whip. She was about to stress this point when she noticed out of the corner of her eye that someone's attention was somewhere else entirely. 'The same goes for you as well, Veemon, so you'd better listen up!'

Veemon tensed as if waking from some trance.

'Are you ready to take this seriously or what?'

'W-well, I was just…'

'You were just _what_?'

Veemon straightened up like a soldier in a line-up. ' _I-I-I was just thinking maybe we could try asking the guy over there for directions, I swear!_ '

Gatomon scowled. 'What guy? In case you didn't notice, there's nobody here.'

'There's not?' he pointed down the street. 'Not even the guy over there?'

'Like I just said, there's-'

Her criticisms were forgotten the instant she and the others traced the reptilian's line-of-sight. A tall and stocky human man with grizzled hair was standing further down the sidewalk, window-gazing. He was dressed in the _yukata_ and sandals of a lost festival-goer, yet he also wore straw _sode_ over his shoulders and a _wakizashi_ in his sash. Unshaven and unkempt, he seemed a strange fellow to meet in an empty city, particularly with the bland festival mask he'd attached to one side of his head.

'I'm… drawing a blank here,' Yolei couldn't take her eyes off of him. 'Who is that?'

'I haven't the faintest idea,' Hawkmon said, placing himself in front of her. 'He does certainly _look_ like a human-'

'That isn't saying much,' Gatomon cut in. 'I look human too when I Digivolve.'

'Same here,' said Patamon, fluttering ahead of TK.

'Well, he can't be a human,' said Armadillomon. 'He's as grown-up as Oikawa was, an' look at all the trouble that fella caused getting here – we woulda noticed somethin' like that.'

'Then he must be a Digimon,' Cody deduced.

'Could be, though that'd mean that he's a lot more dangerous than he looks.'

'Are you sure?' Davis said sceptically. 'I mean, what if he just lives here?'

'Because lots of people have entire cities to themselves,' he heard Yolei whisper, irritating him beyond caution.

'It's not like we're gonna find out just standin' here,' he manoeuvered himself around Veemon before anybody registered what he was doing. 'Hey, buddy! Think you could give us a hand with somethin'?'

'Wha-? Davis!' he heard Yolei squeak with some satisfaction. 'You idiot! Get back!'

The others were calling after him as well, but he ignored them. It was too late and he was too riled up to stop now, so he figured that he might as well push forward.

'I know you can hear me! Hey!'

The man's eyes shifted to Davis without his body following. It was as if he were a statue – a trait Davis and he shared the instant his gaze fell upon him. The boy swallowed, transfixed by eyes that would have made Medusa green with envy.

'A child?' his voice was low and raspy with seeming underuse. 'You have business with me?'

'U-uh… Kinda?' Davis blurted as his friends rushed to his side. 'First off, what are you? Are you a human or a Digimon?'

'A Digimon,' he said forthrightly.

TK took a cautious pace forward. 'If you're a Digimon, would you mind telling us your name?'

'Oyabumon; what's it to you?'

The blonde racked his brains, but he couldn't remember ever hearing that particular name before. A glance toward Patamon was enough to tell him that his partner was drawing a blank, too.

'Your friend mentioned that you needed help,' said Oyabumon, finally turning his body to face them. 'Isn't that right?'

'We're looking for a Digimon,' said Kari anxiously. 'Have you seen anyone else today?'

'I might have and I might not have,' the man was noncommittal. 'As I said: what's it to you?'

'We don't really have time to explain,' Davis cut in. 'We need to find 'em, and quick.'

'As the case may be,' Oyabumon said coolly, 'but I don't have to find them at all, so are you really in a position to argue?'

'What-?!'

'Please don't fight each other,' Kari beseeched the pair. 'We only want to find this Digimon before it hurts anyone; we don't have any hidden agenda, if that's what you're worried about.'

Oyabumon's eyes settled upon her. As with Davis, the girl tensed up if in reflex, but she didn't back down. She could be every bit as stubborn as Tai if she needed to be.

A moment passed in silence, but it was to be Oyabumon who would blink first.

'I saw a puppet creature not that long ago,' he divulged with a sigh. 'It wore a purple robe and had big golden arms; is that the one you're talking about?'

'That sounds like the small one!' Cody exclaimed. 'Which way was it headed?'

'It wasn't headed anywhere,' Oyabumon sniffed and pointed down the street. 'You'll find it about mile in that direction. The city's badly-damaged in that area, so it's hard to miss.'

'It isn't moving?' asked Ken, to which the man stiffly shook his head. 'Why not?'

'I had no need to ask, so I didn't.'

'Well… at least we know where it is now,' said Yolei, trying to put a positive spin on things. 'C'mon – the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can go home.'

Apparently taking this as his cue to leave, Oyabumon walked on by them all, ignoring the alert glares the partner Digimon were giving him as he went.

Even though his back was turned to them, however, Kari made a point of bowing. It was only common courtesy.

'Thank you for all your help.'

He neither stopped nor turned, offering little more than a gruff 'Hmph' in reply.

Yolei wasn't impressed and grumpily folded her arms. 'What's his problem?'

'Now, now; he told us what we wanted without making a big deal out of it,' TK tried to play the appeaser. 'So, no harm done, right?'

'Wrong. I'm willing to put up with a lot, but bad-manners isn't one of them – one Davis is bad enough.'

'Your manners aren't exactly all that great either, grandma.'

' _Okay, that does it! C'mere-!_ '

Yolei made to throttle Davis and he prepared to defend himself when the city was suddenly overcome with a loud and drawn-out rumbling.

' _W-what the-?!_ ' Davis exclaimed as Yolei toppled into and brought him with her to the ground. 'Hey, are you okay?!'

She rolled off of the top of him, shrieking: ' _What's going on?!_ '

The others all struggled to stay on their feet and dropped down to the ground; Patamon was the sole exception. Born and raised in Japan, all of the children knew exactly how devastating an earthquake could be – it was something all Japanese students had drilled into them at school.

Yet before they could think back to their preparatory training, the shaking slowed and just as quickly stilled.

'Over already?' Davis panted, his forehead slick with a building sweat. He joined the others in getting back to his feet. 'Are earthquakes usually that quick?'

'Not any that I've heard of,' Cody breathed as if speaking too loudly might set off another. 'Did something set that off?'

Once again, Veemon pointed out something the others had missed entirely.

'Hey – what's that?'

'Huh?' Davis looked to what he was indicating. 'You see somethin' on the roof?'

He gazed up at the rooftops at the end of the street, but he could see nothing he would class as unnatural – aside from the colour of the sky.

'I don't see whatever it is you see, Veemon.'

'That's 'cause you're looking in the wrong place – look up.'

'Look up at… Wait… What's that?'

It was difficult to make out against the backdrop of the grey, smoky sky, but something was there. Davis squinted at it, trying to make out its shape. To him, it looked like nothing more than a black dot, yet for some reason it stuck out like a dead bit on a computer screen. The others saw it as well, but they seemed just as uncertain about it as he was.

But then Gatomon and Hawkmon – who had by far the best vision out of the group – recoiled from whatever it was they saw.

'It's them!' Gatomon hissed.

'We'd be wise to Digivolve,' Hawkmon seconded, pleading with his confused partner. 'Yolei, there isn't time to explain – help me Digivolve!'

'Uh, r-right!' Hawkmon never got so agitated, so she knew that it had to be serious. She rummaged through her pocket at once and got out her Digivice. 'Just say the word!'

'The word!' Veemon exclaimed as he and the other Digimon hurried on ahead while the kids got their devices ready as well. In an instant, they were all lost within a familiar golden glow.

'Hawkmon, Digivolve to… _Aquilamon_!'

'Armadillomon, Digivolve to… _Ankylomon_!'

'Patamon, Digivolve to… _Angemon_!'

'Wormmon, Digivolve to… _Stingmon_!'

'Veemon, Digivolve to… _ExVeemon_!'

They broke free of the light, larger and better-prepared for a fight. Some were big enough now to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the buildings on either side of them, but it wasn't enough to make moving difficult. Gatomon was the lone exception, having remained in her Champion state for the time being.

The dot was growing bigger with each passing second until – finally – everyone could make out what Gatomon and Hawkmon had recognised at a distance: it was the creature that had been accompanying GranKuwagamon.

'I'll take care of this!' Ankylomon launched forward, twisting his bulky body round; his mace-like tail tore into the building next to him, but failed to halt his momentum. ' _Tail Hammer!_ '

The attack hit its mark like the well-timed swing of a baseball bat. Much like a baseball, the enemy's force was negated, rebounding it off of the sidewalk and into the street. The road held, but its surface around the point of impact riddled with cracks like a stricken eggshell.

Davis and Yolei's mouths fell agape. 'Holy-'

'-crap.'

Davis chuckled, pumping a fist in the air. 'Heheh! How'd you like that?'

ExVeemon spoke without turning. 'It's not gonna be that easy, Davis.'

'We can't take any chances,' Aquilamon, too, was too big to turn around. 'Quick – while it's still down! Digivolve us again!'

'You don't got to tell me twice!' Davis held his Digivice aloft. 'Let's do this, Ken!'

The raven-haired young man nodded and matched Davis. The devices in their hands were still for a moment, but then they began to vibrate and we again overcome with light. The others did the same with the same result; the six Champions radiated with the shine of evolution once more.

At that precise moment, a pair of large golden stingers stabbed into the asphalt, pulling the creature free of its shallow crater.

' _Desperado Blaster_!'

A salvo of energy blasts rattled their foe as a rainstorm lashes against a window. It both trembled and recoiled in equal measure as it was met with blast after rapid blast. Despite this, however, it did not fall back; its giant stingers held firm as if rooted in the road.

' _Kachina Bombs_!'

Shakkoumon's naval opened, sending forth multiple clay tiles toward their enemy. True to their name, the tiles exploded either upon impact on upon colliding with one of Paildramon's energy blasts. The fireball generated swallowed the monster whole, shrouding it within the smoke and the heat. The pair ceased their attacks and watched closely for any sign of movement.

It happened quicker than they could react: the fire was sudden swept aside and the enemy leaping forward with a stinger raised and ready for stabbing.

Silphymon leapt into action and – with strength uncommon for one her size – shoved her friends out of the stinger's path. The pair of them slammed into the walls and shattered shop windows, but they were out of immediate danger, but now the strike had a new target.

But Silphymon was unafraid, armouring herself in a burning pink aura.

' _Static Force_!'

Silphymon leapt back, her energy clinging to air as substitute.

The creature plunged its stinger into the heart of the stand-in without a second thought and – like a conductor – led the energy right back into itself. Its entire body was bathed in the energy and began spasming violently as if electrified. It neither screamed nor cried out at the pain, but it was clearly experiencing some.

But it was no time for celebration.

Despite the twitching, the creature raised it 'arms' high and then brought them down suddenly as if they were cleavers. The force was immense, dispelling the energy that trapped it completely; the wind this whipped up rushed forth in all directions, breaking the surrounding windows from bottom-to-top. The road fractured badly, the cracks now stretching all the way onto either sidewalk.

The Digidestined were completely swept off their feet, with their partners only just managing to remain on theirs.

'Ugh, man…' Davis tried to get up off of his back, but the fall had completely taken the wind out of him. 'Okay… One and two and-'

' _Cable Catcher!_ '

'Upsie-dais… Huh…?'

What was this that Davis was looking at? He had sat up, only to find a large black dot hovering before his eyes.

The colour drained from his face the instant he realised that it was the point of a stinger. It was frozen in place not three inches from the bridge of his nose. Were it not for Paildramon, there wasn't a doubt in his mind that it would have found its mark.

Paildramon pulled back on his cables and flung the monster toward the end of the road and into the building that stood there. The shop's window shattered at once, spitting out a heap of rubble and a pillar of dust. It had clearly been a strong impact.

'Davis!' Kari knelt down at his side. 'Davis, speak to me! Davis!'

'… H-huh?'

He'd hardly heard her – his heart was hammering too hard to. He sat still for a moment, his brain still digesting what a split-second's difference might have meant. That had been far too close for comfort. Davis wasn't exactly a stranger to hostile Digimon, but this one had just actively singled him out and tried to-!

'Davis!'

'I-I'm fine,' he lied, though the sweat running down his pale face seemed to tell them a different tale. 'I said I'm fine… Don't worry about it, Kari.'

'Are you sure?'

'Yeah… Just gimme a minute and I'll be good to go.'

She was far from convinced but said nothing of it. She was just relieved that he was talking at all. The others were every bit as frightened as she was; simply seeing it from a distance had been scary enough, let alone what it must have been like to see it up close…

Davis swallowed and could feel the saliva trailing down his throat – it was bone-dry. He took one breath and then a second before attempting to stand. His legs trembled beneath him as if the ground were still shaking. He stumbled, but thankfully Ken was there to hold him steady.

'Hah… Hah…' Davis dashed the sweat from his brow as he panted. 'This guy isn't playin' around…'

'Davis, maybe you should sit back down-'

Were it not for the adrenaline, he might have heeded his best friend's advice – but right now he needed to keep his head in the game. This was no time to be scared stiff.

'If he wants to play that way, then so can we!' he snapped, squeezing his Digivice tight so that his trembling hand wouldn't drop it. 'Ken?'

'Are you sure that you're-?'

' _Ken_.'

Ken wasn't comfortable with the idea, but he couldn't let that stop him. Davis had it far worse than he did, so it wouldn't have been right to let him down. He squeezed his Digivice.

'Alright… Paildramon!'

Their partner straightened up, his body exuding golden light.

' _You heard them, you guys!_ ' TK shouted. ' _Keep that thing busy!_ '

Said "thing" had just emerged from the rubbly remains of the shop as Silphymon and Shakkoumon rocketed over to greet it.

' _Static Force!_ '

' _Justice Beam!_ '

Powerful blasts slammed into the nameless being but failed to move it; its stingers were crossed before it like a human's arms.

' _Kachina Bombs!_ '

Clay tiles again rushed forth, albeit flying much lower and even sliding across the road like hockey pucks. They accumulated at the creature's 'feet' in what looked like a small mound. All they needed was ignition, which Silphymon was only too happy to provide.

' _Static Force!_ '

The explosions went off one-after-the-other like a set of firecrackers, creating a bigger and bigger fireball with every new detonation. Heat swept over the Digidestined suddenly, hotter even than that of a blazing furnace. Everything within the blast radius was splashed with flame and speckled with embers. Choking black smoke swirled, reaching higher and higher for cooler air.

Shakkoumon and Silphymon stood rigidly, eyeing the fires like patrons of art in a museum – critically. They searched for the slightest hint of movement inside the haze. It had been quite the blast, but they doubted that it would be so easy.

As the light dimmed, the Digidestined took heart at the sight of the titan took shape before them: it was Imperialdramon, evolved all the way into his Fighter Mode.

'Yeah!' the sight helped calm Davis' nerves a little. 'Go and teach this joker a lesson!'

'You've got it – hm?!'

No sooner was he ready for battle when something burst forth from the smoke. It was a dark sphere, no bigger than a volleyball, but it moved far faster than any volleyball that he'd ever seen. He only just managed to catch the thing, and only then did he realise its heft; it felt as though Imperialdramon had tried to catch and asteroid with his bare hands. His palms ached and his fingers tingled numbly. He could almost feel his elbows creaking with the strain of holding the thing back. Digging his toes into the asphalt did little to help – it was pushing him back regardless, a little bit at a time.

He was just feet away from the kids. They needed to move, but there was hardly any room to move. The street was too narrow and Imperialdramon too big.

Yolei suddenly remembered the Phys. Ed volleyball classes she hated. 'P-PUSH IT UP!' she screamed. ' _UP!_ '

Imperialdramon heard her, but it was no use. Every muscle and fibre were at their limit just holding it back, let alone trying to alter its course.

But just as he could feel his arms giving in, the sphere pulled back in reverse. With the weight gone, Imperialdramon fell to a knee as a curious wind rushed at his back.

It was Shakkoumon. The living doll's compartment was again open, this time sucking in air like a vacuum. The sphere lost its shape as the energy was taken in. The compartment shut, and steam hissed out of the doll's head.

But something wasn't right.

The living doll froze like a statue. For a moment nothing happened, but the next his mighty metal body became crinkly like tinfoil. Black arcs flashed about the metal, making it even more wrinkly still.

'Shakkoumon!' Cody tried to run, but Yolei didn't let him get very far. 'Yolei, what are you doing?! Let me go! I have to help him! Let me go!'

'No! You'll just get yourself hurt!'

'No, I won't! Let go of me!'

'Ugh! Cody, stop! I need a hand over here!'

Ken rushed over to help, and so did Kari. Cody put up an impressive fight, considering that the three were bigger than he was.

But that fight ended as light flooded his eyes and then vanished just as quickly. Shakkoumon was gone, and what remained of him lay unconscious on the sidewalk.

' _Patamon!_ '

' _Upamon!_ '

Neither responded and seemed unlikely to for quite a while. Whatever the attack had been, it had certainly appeared to have done a number on both.

Silphymon leapt first across the street to grab them, and then once again to where the children were gathered. TK and Cody immediately took their partners into their own hands. They tried again and again to wake them up, but to no avail. They were out cold.

'G-guys… It's still…'

Yolei pointed, trembling, to the very thing none of them wished to see.

The sudden gust had thinned out the fires just enough that they could all see quite clearly what stood at their heart. It stood there with its stingers used as stilts, seemingly unconcerned with the tongues of flame licking at it. Given that it wore a large purple cloak like a Bakemon, it appeared quite flammable, and yet none of the flames seemed to be doing anything. It wasn't even singed, let alone on burning.

Like the colour in his face, Davis' adrenaline drained away. 'N-no way… That thing's _fire-proof_?!'

Panic replaced courage at the sight. None of the kids could believe that three Ultimate-level Digimon had managed to do so little damage. Their only remaining hope made to stand, but he found even that much to be a struggle. Imperialdramon thought about Patamon and Upamon. Had they not taken the full-brunt of that attack in his place, then he would have come undone in their place.

But his time was short. He could already feel his union dissolving, meaning that his next attack was make or break. He determined this just as Silphymon appeared at his side.

'Can you still fight?'

'For now,' he wheezed, trying to recall the last time he was so short of breath. 'That last attack really took it out of me.'

'I can tell just by looking at you.'

The dragon-king might've laughed had he the energy for it.

'So, then: what should we do? Any bright ideas?'

Imperialdramon nodded. He had one attack in him at most, which narrowed his list of choices down to one.

'Get it as high as you can,' he instructed.

'Yeah? Then what?'

'Get as far away as you can.'

She balled her fists so tightly that the nails dug into her palms. She balled them tighter still as the creature pulled itself free of its fiery pit.

'… It'll be there; just make it count.'

A sudden gust rushed through the street as Imperialdramon shot up into the sky. Within an instant he was hovering high above the buildings with his eyes fixed upon the monster below. He could see it leaning back, as if holding his gaze.

It didn't seem to realise its error until Silphymon planted her foot deep in its mid-section. It doubled-over as if winded, though without a gasp it was difficult to tell.

'HAAAA-AHHH!'

Silphymon's fists became blurred until they became indistinct, pulling back and throwing them so rapidly that it looked as if she had several. They rattled off her opponent so quickly that it reacted as if under machine-gun fire. It continued jerking even after she had dropped down and drawn back a fist down by her hip. It was wreathed in a pink aura.

The upper-cut was such that the air itself rippled like water. The entire area seemed to shake, so it didn't surprise anyone that the marionette-like creature was sent high into the open air.

Like the others, Yolei held a hand before her eyes against this second gust, but having her glasses meant that she could peek through her fingers. It was enough to put an anxious smile on her face.

'You did it!'

'Not yet!' Silphymon told her as she leapt up after it. Having a fair idea which attack Imperialdramon intended to use, she could tell at a glance that it wasn't nearly high enough yet. 'Eat this!'

Silphymon slapped the heels of her palms together and readied her energy as she rocketed beyond the building tops. The creature twisted helplessly in mid-air as she pushed the energy into its back.

' _Static Force!_ '

The sphere burst and forced the two apart. It wasn't too much higher that it rose, but it would have to be enough. Silphymon twisted herself into a nose-dive as she fell for a quicker getaway. In light of what was about to happen, it seemed a good idea to not stick around.

Her timing couldn't have been more perfect. Imperialdramon – hovering some distance away for his own safety – had just finished channelling everything into his core. The mouth of his dragon chest-plate opened, revealing a core shining like a star and thrumming with untold energies.

' _Giga Crusher!_ '

The pitch sharpened. It sounded almost as if the energies were screaming a demand for release.

Imperialdramon dared to presume success, and it was in that very instant that he lost sight of his target.

The blast had been a blink away when, suddenly, the creature wasn't so far at all. It was as if he were witnessing a skipping video: in one instance the strange being had been distant and stunned, and the next it was placed well-within striking-distance. It had one of its 'arms' drawn back, so it clearly knew that as well.

 _How in the-?!_

But it was too late to think, and much too late to stop. The next thing he knew was a stinger being thrust at his core, and then the sound of a loud ' _CRACK_ '.

…

' _Nova Force!_ '

WarGreymon spun so fast that he looked like a red cyclone as he bounced off of GranKuwagamon's skull.

The beast stumbled, the trees beside it snapping like twigs as it tried to stay on its feet.

The battle had raged for just two minutes, and it didn't seem likely to last much longer. It had all started so suddenly that the Digimon and their partners were all hopped up on adrenaline. One moment they had been following Cherrymon's trail, and in the next they'd been caught off-guard by GranKuwagamon's charging at them like a goring rhino.

Nevertheless, the numbers game had quickly become too much for it.

WarGreymon stopped spinning and landed alongside his fellow Digimon in the defensive line separating the enemy from their partners. The fog swirled all around them as if spectating, kept at bay by the sheer weight of their attacks. What had only moments ago been unbroken woodland was now a large clearing in the forest. Felled trees were strewn about like a child's discarded toys.

It was the fourth time GranKuwagamon had been knocked down, and the fourth time that it got right back up again. It swiped and swung wildly like a dazed boxer. What few thoughts it had in its head looked to have been knocked out of it by the last attack. It roared its terrible roar, but it didn't frighten the Digimon or the children; the menace was gone, leaving only the desperate cry of a monster who'd realised that it had picked the wrong fight.

'Everyone!' WarGreymon rallied. 'Attack at the same time!'

' _Horn Buster!_ '

' _Wing Blade!_ '

' _Metal Wolf Claw!_ '

' _Terra Force!_ '

GranKuwagamon charged headlong into the blasts as if it were the quarterback of a one-mon-team. Perhaps it meant to break on through, but it didn't get very far at all before it dissolved into a cloud of data bytes.

With the immediate threat dealt with, the light of de-Digivolved flashed as fog started creeping on back into the clearing.

'That was great!' Tai grinned from ear-to-ear, pulling Agumon into a tight hug. 'I wish the younger guys in my soccer club were half as coordinated as you guys were! Good work, everybody!'

Agumon nuzzled his partner. 'It was nothing.'

'You're telling me,' Matt patted Gabumon on the shoulder, but he couldn't ignore the niggling feeling he had that something wasn't right. 'Is it just me or did that seem a little too easy?'

Gabumon was happy for the praise but couldn't understand the appraisal. 'What do you mean, Matt? Did I do something wrong?'

'Not at all,' said Matt. 'Just thinking aloud is all.'

'So, what are you thinking, then?' asked Tai. 'Better out than in, right?

' _Tai_ …'

'You know what I mean,' he could almost feel Sora's eyes boring through him. 'C'mon, Matt: out with it.'

'I'm just saying that something kinda off; we've never beaten a Mega _this_ easily before.'

'Yeah…' Sora sighed, suddenly not so certain. She noticed the look Tai then gave her, and she didn't like it one bit. 'I'm not saying this just to agree with Matt,' she snapped at him. 'All the Mega-level Digimon we've ever fought have thrown us around like ragdolls and this one didn't.'

Izzy's lips pressed into a thin line. 'Hmm… Perhaps it's more a case of it 'couldn't'. It's entirely possible that GranKuwagamon simply wasn't all that strong in the first place.'

'You're telling me!' Tentomon buzzed. 'Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I felt as if I could've taken that big bully on all by myself!'

'Me, too,' said Biyomon, albeit in a much less overstated way. 'To be honest, he wasn't nearly as scary as I thought he would be.'

'We could have we caught him napping,' Gabumon suggested.

'But it had just hurt Cherrymon when we found him,' Agumon pointed out.

'Oh… right.'

'In any case, I'd say that we've more than done our part for the day,' said Izzy. 'We can discuss this later – preferably somewhere without so much fog in it.'

'You won't hear me complaining,' Tai mumbled, grabbing his Digivice. 'Let's see now… The map says the portal's back… that-a-way.'

'Or we could just follow back the trail,' said Matt, pointing.

'Either works in my book; no reason to stick around here.'

…

Davis didn't recall falling, but for some reason he couldn't get back up. He would try to push himself off of his belly, but then gravity would yank him right back down again. There was a lump in his throat he feared might be his breakfast. He tried to swallow it but would have had better luck at swallowing a whole apple.

When he spoke, it was in choked whispers. 'Guys… Guys, you there?'

'We're still here,' he heard TK groan from somewhere close by. 'Ugh… My head's ringing like a bell…'

There were some scraping noises around him - most likely the others attempting to get up.

'Ugh… I think I broke my everything…' Yolei exaggerated, feeling at her lenses to ensure that they weren't broken. 'What happened?'

'There was an explosion.'

They all tensed at a voice much too husky to be one of theirs. Those who weren't already up to their knees practically sprang up at the sound of it with their eyes zeroing in on the speaker, stood in front of them with his back turned.

TK coughed. 'You were still here?'

'Clearly,' Oyabumon glanced back over his shoulder at them. At least, that's he seemed to do; it was hard to tell with a mask pulled over his face. 'But enough about that; you should leave now while you still have the chance.'

'I don't understand,' Ken told him. 'What happened to us?'

Oyabumon's gaze shifted upwards and theirs in turn.

'W-what?' Davis leaked air like a punctured balloon. 'Ah… huh…?'

Ken's eyes went as wide as tennis balls at the sight. 'This… can't be…'

Not one of the Digidestined remained in a stunned stupor when they saw it.

Imperialdramon was falling.

A smoking heap, he fell like an asteroid and crashed hard into the street beneath him. The ground trembled a little with his landing, kicking up quite the dust cloud in his wake.

Neither Davis nor Ken could quite believe it. ' _IMPERIALDRAMON!_ '

Kari gasped. 'Where's Silphymon?'

'Hm?' Oyabumon turned, revealing that his arms were full. 'Do you mean them?'

He held both Poromon and Salamon in his arms. Yolei and Kari quickly took them off his hands and tried to wake their partners up, but neither of them did. Both were breathing softly, but that was the extent of it. Like Upamon and Patamon, nothing their partners said would help rouse them.

'They were caught in the blast by the time I'd reached them,' said Oyabumon, shifting his mask back to its original position. 'It's nothing a little rest won't fix.'

Yolei and Kari gave up on trying to wake their partner Digimon up. They could tell just from looking at them that Oyabumon was right. Nothing seemed to wake them, and it was best not to push them too hard.

'Wait,' said Cody, 'where did that monster go?'

The humanoid Digimon jerked his head upward. 'See for yourselves.'

They did so, and they didn't like what they saw.

The creature hovered in place high above them, looking conspicuously unharmed. It was more than just the height of it; it didn't even look as if it's robe had been tattered. Given its proximity to the blast, it didn't seem possible that it could have come away unscathed; Imperialdramon lay smoking in a shallow crater, yet it was still floating as if nothing had even happened.

'I think you piqued its curiosity,' Oyabumon told them. 'Perhaps slipping away isn't an option after all.'

It certainly seemed to be the case, for gravity sudden retook the creature and brought it crashing back down. It struck at the ground with its stingers and stuck its landing flawlessly.

Retreat no longer seemed like a bad idea – not even to a hothead like Davis. Whatever this creature was, it was clearly much more than they could handle without backup. They needed to go back to the drawing board lest they ended up on the chopping block.

'Guys, we can't stay here!' TK's shouted.

'Are you out of your mind?!' Davis yelled right back, fighting his own gut instinct to run. 'We can't just cut and run without Imperialdramon!'

Ken was frightened, but no less determined than Davis was. He'd lost Wormmon once, and he wasn't about to lose him again.

TK looked over to the downed titan, doing his utmost to keep his cool.

 _This isn't good_ , he thought to himself. _We need to get out of here, but… Why haven't they turned back to normal?_

There could be no question that Imperialdramon was badly hurt, yet somehow, he was still holding himself together. Too damaged to fight and too heavy to carry away, TK just couldn't see how they could possibly take him and run – not unless he separated, and fast.

Oyabumon had the coolest head of them all by far; he even went so far as to sigh as if the whole thing were something trivial.

'He hasn't the strength left to fight, but just enough to keep that form,' he tutted. 'How unhelpfully durable… Hm?'

The creature was up to something, throwing its stingers up into the air. Black electricity arced from one to the other, rising between the two and giving shape to another black sphere at the stingers' tips. Before it had been the size of a volleyball, but this one was thrown prematurely when it was no bigger than a golf ball.

Oyabumon immediately reached for his mask but stopped short of pulling it over his face. A barrier had appeared between him, the children and the oncoming sphere, though not the kind he had intended. He'd not expected that one so big could be so quick.

'Imperialdramon?!' the children gasped together.

His armour had shattered in the blast and his skin was badly bruised and even broken in places, but there could be no mistake about who he was. Without a moment's pause he threw his hands forward and grabbed for the sphere. With much of his armour lost, it was all-too-easy to see how knotted his back and shoulders became from the effort.

But that wasn't all. Oyabumon narrowed his eyes up at the dragon-knight's broad shoulders, seeing the kind of faint flicker one might expect of a dying neon light.

'What is that?'

Imperialdramon didn't know what it was either; he could feel a strange warmth in his shoulders and wasn't sure whether it was just a side-effect of getting caught up in his own blast. He'd felt it while he'd lain in that crater. The blast was such that it ought to have put him down for the count, but that heat alone had kept him awake and aware.

Nothing weighed Imperialdramon's right arm down, so he could only assume that he'd lost his blaster. Even so, something told him that it didn't matter; he felt a very new and very strange instinct, telling him that he could repel the sphere without it.

That was when he felt the unknown heat travelling down his arms and into his hands. Suddenly, the sphere didn't feel heavy at all.

Imperialdramon was confused, but he wasn't about to waste an opportunity that was likely his last. He dared to draw back a fist and slammed it into the ball's surface with everything he had. It reshaped itself around his fist with its colour quickly changing from the deepest black to the lightest white. With this, the sphere bounced off of his knuckles and was sent hurtling back to its maker. The creature didn't even seem to realise what had hit it until after it had already been lost within the ensuing explosion.

It was at this moment that the fusion finally dissolved, leaving DemiVeemon and Leafmon behind in place of the titan they had been.

'Hahaha!' Davis hurried over with Ken in tow. 'You did it, buddy! You actually did it!'

'Davis, we have to get out of here!' Ken reminded him. 'That thing's managed to tough out a lot worse than that!'

'No, the boy's right,' Oyabumon told him. 'It's done.'

Ken remained sceptical. 'How are you so sure?'

'I can't see it anymore; I assume that you know what that means in this world, correct?'

'Even if you say that…'

'Hmph,' Oyabumon walked right on by him. 'As you wish. Wait here.'

Unlike Ken, Yolei was much more willing to believe that the monster was gone. 'Thank God that's over…' she sighed, adjusting her hold of Poromon. 'Is everyone okay? How are the Digimon holding up?'

'They should be okay,' Kari assured her with Salamon cradled in her arms. 'They're just worn out from all the fighting; it's nothing a little sleep won't fix.'

'How about you, Davis,' TK asked carefully. 'I mean, you had a pretty close call back there…'

'I can't complain – after all, these guys did all the hard work.'

'Still-'

'I said I'm fine.'

'Whatever you say.'

The Digidestined took to celebrating as best they could without disturbing their partners' well-earned rest. Only Ken wouldn't take part in it, his eyes fixed upon Oyabumon's back as the humanoid Digimon inspected the site of the explosion. To the boy's surprise, however, Oyabumon suddenly jumped into the crater and out of vision. He wasn't long, though, jumping back out onto the fractured road with something slung under his arm. Ken's eyes bulged when he recognised what it was.

It was a human boy.

…

 **A/N:** And… done!

This was by far the most tiring chapter I've ever done. Multiple rewrites and a whole bunch of ideas have pushed me to a new record: 10, 980 words!

Not to seem like an old man, but I think I'm going to have a couple of days rest now. Please enjoy and – as ever – feel free to comment with what you liked and didn't like. Your opinion is much-appreciated and very educational in the long run.

See you guys next time.


	5. Aftermath

**A/N:** Welp, I'm feeling a lot better now. After two days rest, I finally feel alive again. That last chapter went through so many rewrites and proofs that I actually thought it would be the death of me.

But enough about that; you didn't click on the link just so I could voice my complaints.

Enjoy.

…

 _ **April 9**_ _ **th**_ _ **, 2005**_

 _ **Saturday**_

Matt glowered at the table top, half-wishing that doing so would turn it into a mirror just so he could give himself a piece of his mind. Given what TK had just finished telling him and the other older kids about how things had gone on his team's end, it would have been no less than he felt that he deserved for his part in allowing such a near-catastrophe to come about.

'… and that pretty much sums it up,' he half-heard his little brother concluding. 'It was a little touch-and-go there for a while, but we managed to beat that thing in the end.'

'Sounds like you guys had it rough,' Tai sounded remorseful, as he should have. 'How's everyone holding up?'

'None of us are hurt, which is the main thing…' TK's voice dipped into a whisper, '… though you might want to check up on Davis to be safe. He had a pretty close-call out there, and it seems like it shook him up a whole lot worse than he's letting on.'

Tai hummed. 'Leave it to me; I've dealt with him long enough to know how to talk him down.'

'Thanks, Tai.'

'What else are friends for?'

'True,' TK chuckled a little, but then he stopped just as quickly as he'd started. 'Uh… Matt?'

'Huh?'

Reality snapped back into place. Everyone else sat around the low-table had turned to stare at Matt as though he were some attraction in a zoo. Pressing his hands against the section of _tatami_ mat behind him for support, he leant well away from the brunt of their combined gaze.

'You feeling okay?' TK asked with a genuinely concerned look on his face. 'You've been giving the table the evils for a while now…'

'Yeah, well…' Matt looked away, trying his best to think of how best to express what was weighing on his mind. 'Davis wasn't the only one who had a close-call today. If you knew that things were going south, then why in the hell would you decide to stick around? How could that not have struck you as being the _worst possible thing_ you could've done in that situation?'

TK swallowed. His expression was his usual well-practiced calm, but he'd never been very good when it came to hiding his subtler tells. For someone like Matt who had developed a bit of an eye for these tells over the years, TK might as well have said outright that he'd been hoping that he might be able to side-step that particular question.

 _No dice, kiddo_ , Matt thought to himself. 'You might've won in the end, but that doesn't suddenly mean that it was a sure-thing. If you thought that running was the best call, then _you_ should've made it; you should've worried more about getting yourselves out of there alive and less about Davis and his goddamn ego. And another thing-'

'Lay off him, Matt,' Tai cut across sharply. 'I think he gets it, so cut him some slack.'

'"Cut him some slack"?' Matt scoffed. 'I'm sorry, but he let Davis have his usual ego-trip in the _middle_ of a life-and-death situation, and you want me to just " _cut him some slack_ "?'

'Pretty much, yeah.'

'Look, let's not fight amongst ourselves,' Izzy urged them, speaking up for the first time. 'I know it's frustrating, but that doesn't mean that we should take it out on each other-'

'Stay out of this, Izzy!'

'Hey, leave him out of this!'

'How about _you_ stay out of it, Tai?'

Tai gave Matt a glare so cold that it would have bitten most men down to the bone; unfortunately for him, the blonde could give every bit as good as he gets. 'Save the lectures for later,' Tai growled, voice rippling with authority. 'Now's not the time.'

Matt was incensed. He sprung forward at once and thrust a finger as close to Tai's face as the table between them would allow.

'Don't you _dare_ try to pull rank on me over my own _brother_ , Tai!'

'You'd be smart to get out of my face, Matt.'

The elder blonde was about to do no such thing. No one told him how to treat his little brother and got away with it. He could almost feel the harsh words he wanted to say bubbling their way up his throat like the fizz of a chemical reaction in a test tube, but that was before Sora slapped a hand down on the table before he had the chance to give them voice.

'Don't-even-think-about-it!' the redhead hissed with a face that matched the colour of her hair. 'I don't care how frustrated both of you are about TK and Kari; it's no excuse to take it out on somebody else!'

Both recoiled at the fire in Sora's eyes. She didn't often get so worked up, but when she did she could be a bigger handful than either of them cared to deal with. Matt knew that, and from the look of him so did Tai. He supposed it made sense that Tai would just as riled up as him, now that he thought about it. Matt felt ashamed knowing now what TK had come up against without his big brother being there to watch his back; no doubt it was exactly the same way Tai must have felt over Kari.

Matt pushed himself up to his feet.

'I'm going to get some air,' he murmured, sliding the paper door behind him open and taking off before any of them saw fit to stop him.

…

'Well… that was unexpected,' Izzy said mostly to himself. 'I was worried that might have gotten out of hand for a nanosecond or two…'

'You and me both,' said TK, a bit of bounce creeping back into his voice. 'Matt's never really been the best with emotions. He tends to bottle things up inside until something finally sets him off.'

Izzy thought about that, remembering well how distant Matt had been in the week running up to today. _I guess I'm partly at fault for it this time…_

Suddenly, Tai made a loud clearing of his throat and also got to his feet. He'd done so with his eyes closed, no doubt because Sora was still glaring up at him with all the wrath of the Sun.

' _Ahem_ ,' Tai cleared his throat again and slowly – very slowly – worked his way round the low-table and its occupants. 'W-well, I… I guess this'd be as good a time as any to go find Davis.'

'He was by the fishpond the last time I saw him,' TK supplied with a smile. 'Thanks, Tai.'

'No problem.'

And with that, the bushy-haired brunette left the room with about as much dignity as one could when fleeing from a problem they had helped cause. Sora's glare followed him out and didn't much soften once he was gone.

'Honestly…' her shoulder sagged with a big heaving sigh. 'What am I supposed to do with them? How can those people grow so much yet still act like a bunch of little kids?'

Izzy and TK laughed anxiously.

'I swear, I'm about _this_ close to just… just… _Ugh!_ '

Izzy's smile wavered. Mount Sora seemed just about ready to erupt – a scenario he would have much preferred to avoid if at all possible. He wondered if a joke might help to defuse the situation, and even dared to actually try one.

'S-Sora, you're not about to say anything that I'll have to repeat in court, are you?'

'Huh? What's that supposed to mean?' no sooner had she asked this before it appeared to click into place. 'Izzy! Do you seriously think I'd plan for something like _that_ in front of Matt's little brother?!'

TK was still smiling. 'Was… Was that a no?'

'Yes, it was a no! I don't plan on hurting anybody, I swear!'

'I, uh… Good to know…'

' _Ahh_ …! See what you've started now, Izzy?' Sora huffed at him, indignant. 'Now TK thinks that I'm some kind of axe murderer-in-waiting!'

'I didn't mention any axe, but, uh… ha-ha… ha…' Izzy lift his hands as if trying to block out the heated glare of a spotlight. Evidently, he'd made things much worse. There was nothing for it now but to get himself well out of dodge with a prompt change of topics. 'A-anyway… Thanks to TK, we've gotten a basic grasp of the situation.'

Thankfully, TK seemed to pick up on his underlying plea and went along with it.

'Glad I could help,' he said before Sora could interrupt. 'So, what are your thoughts?'

'It's too early to say…' said Izzy. 'Clearly, we made a big mistake in assuming that the two would be equal in strength. If what you said was true, then there wasn't even a contest between them.'

'You're being too hard on yourselves,' TK said reasonably. 'It could've just as easily been the other way around. After all, GranKuwagamon _was_ a Mega-level Digimon.'

'In theory, perhaps, but he didn't seem anywhere near strong enough to defeat a Digimon as powerful as Imperialdramon. I'd like to learn more about what exactly what that smaller Digimon was, if at all possible.'

'If it was a Digimon at all,' Sora spoke up suddenly. 'I mean, what kind of Digimon would leave behind a human being when it's beaten?'

…

The traditional Japanese-style compound was every bit as beautiful on the outside of the estate as it was within it. White walls stretched high and long around the compound's perimeter, a touch that in most cases would separate the street and – in theory – keep the more unsavoury characters on the outside. These walls, however, served a much greater purpose than this: that of keeping the surrounding lake at bay. The water was suspended all around them, boxing the entire compound grounds in an enclosed space. It didn't make much sense to think as such, but it was a lot like being in a room with a ceiling and walls made of a pale jelly. All around, the water was a light orange, the reflection of an unseen sky tinted with an evening blush.

It was enough boggle even the most open of minds, and yet for Davis it meant nothing. His mind was elsewhere, and had been for a while now. He was in what he supposed would pass for the front yard area, which was only slightly smaller than his school gym. It was so big that it even possessed a small fishpond, to one side of which Davis could be found.

Ken had come over minutes before and sat beside him, but neither said a word. Leafmon and DemiVeemon sat on their laps, still very much asleep. DemiVeemon in particular was unusually quiet, not once making his usual pleas for some imaginary meal. Davis let him be, happy enough knowing that his partner was simply exhausted. That seemed a blessing given how touch-and-go the fight earlier had been.

He sighed to himself, eager for distraction. Noticing that the pond bed was mostly made up of pebbles, one such distraction leapt eagerly to mind.

'Hey, Ken,' he sniffed, picking a pebble from the shallow of the pond. 'What do you think would happen if I threw this at the lake?'

'Huh? I, uh… I don't know,' said Ken, looking surprised by the sudden question.

'Oh, c'mon,' Davis coaxed, 'level with me here: it'll spring a leak – yes or no?'

'I'd worry if it did.'

'Better be careful, buddy; too much fence-sittin' and you'll give yourself splinters.'

'Then I'll go with 'no',' Ken sighed in resignation. 'Somebody's feeling chatty all of a sudden.'

'I can stop if you want.'

'Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves…'

'Fine by me,' Davis set DemiVeemon to one side and stood up, tossing his chosen pebble up and down, again and again. 'The silence was startin' to bug me, anyway. Now then – moment of truth!'

Davis then pelted the pebble as hard as he could at the suspended wall of water ahead of him. The stone smacked into the surface and generated ripples, but no clear effect beyond that.

'Talk about anti-climactic,' said a new voice behind them. Peering back, the pair were met by a grinning Tai. 'Room for one more?'

Without waiting for a response, he quickly settled himself down beside Ken and Leafmon.

'Sure is nice out,' he commented with a sigh. 'Makes sense you'd come out here for some peace and quiet.'

'Yeah…' Davis couldn't hold his gaze and looked instead to the fish pond. 'It's not the worst place in the world.'

'I wouldn't go that far – last I checked, it doesn't have a soccer pitch.'

'When last you checked?' Ken queried.

'It's, uh… It's kinda what I was doing before I saw you guys,' Tai said, though Davis didn't believe him for a second. 'I needed to blow off some steam, so I figured that I'd scope the place out.'

'Huh…'

'Look, Tai,' Davis cut in without facing him, 'you don't have to try and talk to me. I've already got Ken breathin' down my neck, so I'd rather not have you doin' it, too.'

'Then let's talk about something else, then,' Tai offered. 'For starters, where'd this new friend of yours wander off to?'

'I wouldn't exactly describe him as our friend,' Ken said gingerly. 'He was more of a Good Samaritan than anything.'

'Uh-huh… So, where is he?'

'He's keepin' an eye on that kid we found,' Davis curtly provided. 'You know, in case he goes all nutso on us again.'

Tai didn't know quite what to make of that. '"Nutso", huh?'

Davis realised his mistake instantly and cursed his having spoken. 'Y-yeah, well… Look, I just don't wanna talk about it, okay?'

'No one's forcing you to.'

Davis pinched the bridge of his nose, trying his best to ignore the thumping in his skull. 'Good – just as long as we understand each other.'

Even Tai wasn't so dense as to step on such an obvious landmine. If his protégé needed some space before he was ready to talk, then space was what Tai would give him.

'At any rate,' he diverged with a cough, 'this samurai guy doesn't sound all that bad. I mean, he did go out of his way to help you guys when you needed it, right? That makes him okay in my book.'

Thankfully for him, Ken was quick to catch on.

'I suppose that we do owe Oyabumon our thanks.'

'You and me both,' Tai leaned on back with his hands behind his head. 'Anyone who saves my sister definitely gets a thanks from me. Not that you guys aren't important to me, but you know.'

'We understand,' Ken smiled softly. 'I suppose that Matt feels the same way about TK?'

Tai's brow wrinkled, but he chose to let it pass without comment.

'… Is that a yes?'

'Yes.'

'Did you two have a fight again?'

Tai suddenly longed for the days when Ken had been the newbie to the group and stayed as quiet as possible. Again, he said nothing.

'I see,' Ken said with poorly-disguised mirth. 'Sora didn't give you another time-out, did she?'

' _You know_ -'

The boy lifted his hands in surrender. 'Sorry – I couldn't help myself.'

Tai sniggered to himself. 'I can't tell who's been the worse influence on you: Davis or Yolei.'

'Hey!' Davis exclaimed, rounding on him. 'What's that supposed to mean?!'

Tai sat up. It had taken a bit of needling, but at least Davis was beginning to let his guard down. Maybe now he could start working towards what they actually needed to discuss.

It was just a shame that he had the most appalling luck.

'Hey, you guys!'

They all turned their heads as one, seeing that Izzy was waving somewhat frantically at them from one of the estate's exterior corridors.

'Gennai's back! Get in here, quick!'

…

'How strange…'

This was all Gennai said for a few moments after the situation had been explained to him. He knelt to one side of the boy's futon whilst Kari wrung a wet towelette on the other. The humans and their Digimon pressed themselves to the walls, feeling like sardines in a can. None of them had wanted to be left out and so had packed themselves into the estate's guestroom. They stood around the boy's futon without any room to sit, yet not one of them would complain.

That is until Matt had heard one 'hmm' too many. 'Gennai, would you mind getting to the point and telling us what's going on?'

'Matt, don't!'

'No, Sora! We've been sat here worried out of our minds and he's just making it worse by not saying anything!'

'You're right,' Gennai rose suddenly to his feet while Kari carefully draped the towelette across the boy's forehead. 'Then here it is: while there is much I won't understand for some time, I can tell you that this boy is most definitely a human.'

Matt eased up a little, but not by much.

'How can you be so sure?'

'His digital code is always changing and always evolving,' he explained. 'For instance, his height; weight; physical appearance; all the way down to the length of his hair, all of it is changing even now. Digimon have a fixed code and what you see is what you get. Only a human could have a living code like this.'

'Huh,' Izzy blurted unthinkingly, inspecting the boy at his feet. 'If he's a human, then just who is he? A Digidestined?'

'That's correct,' Gennai said without any hesitance, as though it were common knowledge. 'Only a true Digidestined can come into the Digital World.'

'So, how do we find out who he is?' Yolei chipped in.

'Everything about him was encoded during the digitisation process,' said Gennai. 'That includes his name and his home.'

'Wait – you know his name? What is it?'

Gennai's blue eyes seemed almost cloudy when next he spoke.

'Ryo. Ryo Akiyama.'

'Ryo?' Tai looked around, but he couldn't spot even the slightest hint of recognition in the faces of his friends. Regardless, he felt obliged to ask. 'Have any of you guys heard that name before?'

'Not me,' Davis said and – given the 'mm's that followed – it seemed that he spoke for them all.

'You wouldn't have heard of him,' Gennai stated baldly. 'After all, this boy was lost some time ago.'

'You say that like you know him,' the way Matt said this made it sound like an accusation. 'Who is he?'

Gennai sighed, looking visibly drawn all of a sudden.

'Long ago, I spoke to you before your battle with Apocalymon. Do you recall what I said to you back then?'

'You told us that Apocalymon wasn't unbeatable,' Sora offered, if a little confused as to why. 'That there were kids before us who managed to defeat him… Does that mean that this boy is…?'

'Yes.'

Tai felt as though the cold water of the lake had fallen down upon him all at once. All at once, questions and guesses began to burst in his head like fireworks. From the looks of his friends and the older kids' Digimon, he knew that he wasn't the only one to have reasonable doubt sink in.

Matt was the first to voice the obvious: 'But he's just a kid! I mean… Look at him, he's easily five or so years younger than us older kids are! Are you trying to tell me that you sent a kindergartener off to fight?'

'Not at all,' Gennai folded his arms at the accusation. 'Time is not as fixed as you might believe. Did you learn nothing from your battle with Kokomon?'

This gave Matt pause, just as it did the rest of them. Kokomon had once turned back time in the Real World and turned them back into little kids with it. Evidently, time wasn't quite the absolute people made it out to be – at least where virus-ridden Digimon were concerned.

'So, in other words, his time was stopped until today,' came a third person from the corner. Everyone turned to face where the cross-legged and cross-armed Oyabumon was sat. 'That's what you're driving at, isn't it?'

'To put it bluntly, yes. That aside, may I ask how you fit into this picture?'

'I was there when the boy attacked.'

'Why be there at such a time and in such a place?'

'Wandering. I have been for a long time.'

'That's all?'

'That's all,' Oyabumon confirmed with a small nod. 'I'll leave just as soon as you can guarantee that I won't have to look over my shoulder from here on out.'

'Now, let's not be hasty,' Gennai appealed with his lips curving in a gentle smile. 'I haven't had the chance to thank you yet.'

Oyabumon stared right on back at him with half-lidded eyes, as if he were bored. Light was quick to return to them, though not before his expression grew darker. His brow furrowed deeply and his jaw became set.

'Something's wrong.'

'Ungh… Ugghhhh….!'

The sudden wail cut short all discussion as the boy at the heart of it all suddenly began to squirm with life in his futon, his face contorted and pinkening.

'What's wrong?' Tai demanded as the cries grew louder. 'Gennai, what's happening to him?!'

The agent dropped to his knees and brushed the towelette aside to test the boy's temperature. By the pensive look on his face and the anguished look on the boy's own, it was clear that something sinister was happening.

Tai snapped again. 'Gennai!'

'I heard you the first time,' he said with only a tepid sense of cool. 'It would seem the boy being attacked by whatever it was that changed him in the first place. You purged most of it, but its already beginning to re-spread.'

Oyabumon's straightened up until his entire back and head were against the wall. 'So, he is going to turn into that thing again.'

'As he is now, yes.'

'Oh, no!' Kari cried, he hands hovering above the boy as if searching for some way to help. 'What should we do?'

Gennai went quiet, apparently contemplating the situation when, suddenly, his eyes became fixed upon Gatomon.

'Your tail ring,' he held out his hand in urgency. 'Please, Gatomon – we need your ring now.'

'I… Okay,' Gatomon's tail fell over her shoulder so that she could pull off the golden ring in question and hand it over. 'Here.'

Gennai took it gratefully. Flipping the nearest corner of the boy's blanket, he pulled out a lifeless hand and immediately slipped the golden band onto the boy's ring finger.

'Uh… Ughhh… Uaaaahhh…'

As if by the flip of a switch, the thrashing stilled and the boy's breathing began to slowly even out. Finally, the wrinkles in his brow started to iron out, which Kari took as her cue to replace the towelette atop his forehead once more. Gatomon watched the scene with particular interest, her eyes switching back-and-forth between the boy and her tail. She couldn't quite believe that that had worked, and made sure to say as much.

'What did you do to him?'

'What did I do _for_ him,' Gennai corrected, himself looking much more relaxed now that the episode had passed. 'That ring of yours has special properties, Gatomon. I should know: it's the very thing that kept our world from falling to darkness all those years ago. It should be more than enough to keep the virus in check – at least until we find a more permanent solution.'

'So, he's gonna be okay?' Davis ventured. 'I mean, we won't have to worry about any monster transformations or anythin', right?'

Gennai nodded, and so the air in the room immediately relaxed. Knowing that they wouldn't have a homicidal time-bomb at their backs was always a welcome relief in the Digidestined's books, given all their close-calls over the years.

'Okay,' Tai said with a sigh. 'How long until he wakes up?'

'I couldn't say,' Gennai returned the boy's hand to his side and flipped the blanket back into place. 'The ring acts as an anti-virus, so he should wake up as soon as it finishes the job. It might take hours, or maybe even days for him to come out of it.'

'So, we'll just have to wait and see,' TK surmised.

'I'm afraid so.'

Izzy looked to Tai expectantly. 'What do you think, Tai? Do we wait?'

'… No, we can't. If we cut it any closer, then we'll all miss dinner back home.'

Matt concurred. 'It's only a matter of time until one of our parents starts making phone calls,' he pointed out. 'We're done for the day, and TK and the others could use some rest.'

'Let's call it a day,' Tai told them, casting one brief glance to the sleeping boy at his feet. 'With any luck, this Ryo kid will be on his feet tomorrow. We can come back and try and get some answers out of him then.'

'That would be best,' Gennai agreed, hands slipping behind his back. 'Go home and rest for today – you've earned it.'

…

 **A/N:** Well, that's chapter five completed. Hope you guys enjoyed it, even if it's a slower narrative-based chapter this time around.

See you soon, guys!


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